Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:30 pm on 29 September 2021.
Just as a reply to Jenny Rathbone, the reason there are pressures on Monmouthshire is because your Government never built houses to start with, that was the problem.
Minister, as we all know, our roads throughout Wales and the United Kingdom are the vital arteries that connect us all. Mankind has skilfully created an intricate network of roads that connect communities right across Wales and have brought us all closer together. And it has made those local rugby and football derbies a lot easier for people to attend.
We must never forget the sacrifice, time and effort that went into connecting our country. We use our road network to transport goods and services across long and short distances to grow our economy here in the United Kingdom. The road network also, for the first time in human history, gave people who had a vehicle or other modes of transportation the opportunity to travel across our great country and visit places that only, at one time, were seen as a dream. The freedom we all enjoy today on our roads must never be underestimated.
However, times have changed. We understand the real pressures on our environment. We have moved to more sustainable methods of transport. The rise of the electric car has been a great invention of modern times, and now we're in a place to move to a greener source of transportation, using hydrogen power, and more must be done by this Government to invest in the green technologies and kick-start that green revolution. And I just want to pay a quick tribute to Riversimple, who are leading the way in Wales in terms of this technology.
In my constituency of Brecon and Radnor, the road network is vitally important for my constituents who travel mostly out of the county for work due to the poor public transport that serves our communities. The schemes that are dreamt up by Welsh Government around active travel are great if you live in a city, but if you live in rural Wales, your access to public transport is greatly diminished, and the Government forget this time and time again. This is why I am so concerned about the calls by Welsh Government to introduce a road tax and road tolls in Wales, under the guise of protecting the environment. If this Government wants to protect the environment, maybe you should stop taxpayer funding for an airport, or maybe you should move the fleet of ministerial cars away from diesel and all to green energy, but I can't see you doing that. You've got a few Nissan Leafs, so you're going some way to sort the problem out. And maybe you could also deliver the clean air Act that you like to talk an awful lot about.
We need to see this Government investing more money in electric charging points and providing more funding for the research and development of hydrogen power. The reality is that road taxes will prevent the poorest in our society from being able to travel and enjoy their lives in the way they currently do, and I am sure Labour Members do not want to do anything to harm the poorest in our society. I believe that the Welsh Government should be transparent and produce a paper showing us who those road tolls and taxes will hit the hardest. It'll be the poor working people of this country who you like to quote that you represent—[Interruption.] No, I'm not taking an intervention, you wouldn't take one earlier.
This seems to me like an ideological move that will cost businesses and hit our economy in a way you cannot predict. It will take the freedoms away from the citizens of Wales, and that is something I just simply cannot accept. It's a shame today that Labour did their standard delete-all to our motion, yet again dodging the topic. I hope that Members in this Chamber will support our motion. We are here to enhance the lives of the people of Wales, not to strip them of their freedoms under socialism and add extra burdens to their lives. So, I ask every Member in this Chamber to support this Conservative motion and support the hard-working people of Wales. Diolch.