I can see that the benefit of time is not making Mabon ap Gwynfor any more amenable to the arguments put forward by the independent panel. I understand his disappointment, because there is often strong local attachment to these schemes. I heard people saying yesterday that this is a scheme that's been an ambition locally for 70 years. We often see this happening where local authorities, when faced with transport challenges, simply dig out the schemes they've had on the blocks for generations.

But we are in a climate emergency, and I do feel a slight despair, listening to the nightly news every night with the strength of the science, the strength of the frustration at the talks in Glasgow, a recognition by all parties that we need to do things differently, statements in this Senedd, statements by Mabon ap Gwynfor and the local Member of Parliament themselves, recognising the scale and ambition for the climate emergency, from his party for us to have a target of net zero by 2030 rather than 2050. These things are not compatible with continuing to build more road capacity. It's just not compatible. The UK Climate Change Committee make it clear that, in order to reach net zero by 2050, we have to reduce the number of car journeys. Hitting net zero 20 years before that, we don't know how to do that, despite being told that we ought to by Plaid Cymru, and it's certainly not compatible with him pushing for us to build road schemes. 

We've set up an independent review. It's a shame that Llanbedr has been looked at in isolation, because I think if taken as a whole, shifting our road spend to maintenance and alternatives would be seen as a whole, rather than just one scheme that allows local people to say that Llanbedr had been unfairly targeted, which is not the case. We did that at the behest of the local authority because of the European funding deadlines, and this is the report from the independent panel. It's not my recommendation, it's their recommendation, which I've accepted.

His points, I thought, were slightly unfortunate, really, about the dualling of the Heads of the Valleys road. The Heads of the Valleys road, as I recall, was approved by Ieuan Wyn Jones when he was the Minister for transport, and we've also made an exception for a scheme for a Llandeilo bypass, which again was a request of Plaid Cymru. We are certainly not just picking on rural Wales. We have cancelled the M4 bypass around Newport. So, we're certainly not taking a view that is somehow geographically biased, we are trying very difficultly to shift the way we deal with transport spend. 

Llanbedr clearly has some congestion problems, particularly at some times of year, and then there's the separate issue of access to the new business units and the aspiration to have a spaceport. The report by Lynn Sloman is very comprehensive and deals with both of those things, and we are committed to using the contribution the Welsh Government was going to make to this project to work with the local authority to do a genuine Welsh transport appraisal guidance appraisal that doesn't start with the assumption that we build a road, which is what has happened in this case, and, indeed, has happened in other cases too, but to look on a mode-neutral basis to see what sustainable measures we could put in place. That is a sincere commitment, and I discussed that with the leader of the local authority. 

Then on the separate issue of access to open up the land for development, again, the report makes it clear that they think that the existing roads enable some of that to happen and, if further is required, that is something that can be identified through the joint work we'll be doing with the local authority. So, I understand the Member's frustration; I can't quite marry it with what he also says we need to be doing on net zero. He's wrong to suggest, as is the MP, that rural Wales or Gwynedd in particular is being picked on here. This is an approach we'll be taking right across Wales because the science demands we do it, and the climate emergency that both he and I, and Gwynedd Council, have signed up to also demands we do it.