Economic Development in the Valleys

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:14 pm on 28 September 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:14, 28 September 2021

Llywydd, I could spend some time, really, trying to make sure the Member's understood what is actually being proposed, but I'm sure you wouldn't want me to. Let me try to summarise as briefly as I can: there are no proposals for road charging in any general sense. We are under a legal obligation to make sure that those parts of the network where nitrogen dioxide concentrations are above legal limits—that we are taking all of the necessary actions to reduce them.

We have a plan—a funded plan—to do that, but the law requires us to consider a further range of measures should what we are doing not succeed. And it is a legal obligation for us to consider those further potential mitigation measures. That is why there has been talk of road charging, because that is one of the alternative things that we have to consider in order to demonstrate that we are meeting our legal obligations—not because we plan to do so; there are no such plans. We hope that what we're already doing—the 50 mph speed limits and other mitigation measures—will be sufficient to bring air quality within the limits of the law. But the law requires us, in case that should not succeed, to work through, with local communities, other measures that may be necessary, and that's where this story finds its origin.