Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 2 March 2022.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 1:43, 2 March 2022

Well, the roads review panel hasn't reached a conclusion yet, other than on two schemes it was asked to fast track. On both of those schemes, it's published the rationale for why, on balance, those were the best decisions to go forward. Clearly, schemes have had money invested in them. Many of the investments in the A55 junctions, for example, as we've already discussed in the Chamber but I'm happy to repeat it, were on studies that would be still be useful to the Burns commission in the north for its future work. So, it's not wasted; it has been redirected. 

But, at some point, we need to pull a handbrake on schemes, because the logic of her position is we keep investing in schemes because some investment's been put in regardless of their impact on carbon emissions, regardless of their impact on air quality, regardless of their impact on congestion and climate change. And I don't think that is consistent with what the science is telling us, for needing to look afresh and to take different action. At the heart of this is that all of us have to confront the fact the science is telling us we need to change direction, and changing direction has consequences.