Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:12 pm on 28 September 2021.
Llywydd, I'm very grateful to Alun Davies for that supplementary question. I was very pleased indeed to be in Ebbw Vale last week. I was there because it was the day on which Ciner, the company that plan to come to invest in Ebbw Vale, were submitting their formal planning application. I was able to hear from them about the pre-application exercise that they'd been involved in and the various views that they had collected as part of it. That application will now move to its formal consideration. It's an enormous opportunity, if it can be made to happen, and I was very glad to be there.
I've heard Alun Davies many times make the point that the Heads of the Valleys road is an awful lot more than a road; it is a catalyst for economic opportunity right across the Heads of the Valleys and the communities there. We do have to—I agree with him entirely—make sure that we use that £1 billion worth of investment that successive Labour Governments have made in completing the dualling of the road—of the A465—and that we then put that to work to make sure that it is that catalyst for economic futures. I'm very happy indeed to meet with him for a conversation about how we can make that happen.