Thank you very much, Llywydd. I've agreed to give a minute of my time to Janet Finch-Saunders, Tom Giffard and Darren Millar.

Deputy Llywydd, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to debate this topic, which is close to my heart. Our seaside towns need help. We have presided over their decline for far too long. Many of our seaside towns were formed during the nineteenth century, and enjoyed their heyday during the reign of Queen Victoria, right through to the 1970s and the 1980s. That certainly is the case for the biggest such town in my constituency, which is Rhyl. 

My connection to the town is a long one. Not only did I grow up in Rhyl, but my family lived there from before it was a town. Williams Street off Vale Road is named after my great-great-grandmother's family, who occupied that area in the 1800s. Their cottages formed the row that later became Williams Street. My grandfather was born in a terraced house on Vale Road in 1927. My family have owned and operated numerous businesses in the town, and have been active members of the community. 

I'm still a proud member of Rhyl rotary club, which upholds a proud tradition as one of the oldest rotary clubs in Wales, having been granted its charter in 1926. It's safe to say my family have witnessed the birth, life and, sadly, the decline of Rhyl. But I won't sit idly by and watch the death of a town that is part of my blood, my heritage—Rhyl, or should I say, 'sunny Rhyl', as the brochures describe the town, quite rightly. It's believed to be named after the manor house, Tŷ'n Rhyl, on Vale Road, which in turn derived from Tŷ'n yr Haul, or 'house of sunshine'—hence 'sunny Rhyl'. It's probably a lot of belief, but that's what I choose to believe, anyway.

The town grew in the 1800s thanks to its 3 miles of sandy beaches and the Victorian belief in the curative properties of sea air. In fact, it was this belief that saw the famous Victorian poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, sent to Rhyl for five days for the good of his health. Hopkins, who was also a Jesuit priest, had spent three years at St Beuno's College in Tremeirchion during the late 1870s. It was during his sojourn in Rhyl that he penned the poem 'The Sea and the Skylark'.

It was the arrival of the railway in 1848 that accelerated the town's popularity and growth. It became home to Wales's first seaside pier in 1867, a magnificent structure that cost £15,000 to build at the time. It was 2,335 ft long and stood 11 ft above high tide. It initially included a pier railway and offered steamer excursions to other Welsh resorts and to Liverpool. 

Other attractions, which included restaurants, tea rooms, a bandstand, shops and private baths, proved to be quite a draw for Victorian holidaymakers from, mostly, the north-west of England. Tragically, the pier was beset by a series of disasters. In December 1883, the schooner, Lady Stuart, caused extensive damage, which resulted in 183 ft of the pier being lost. In 1891, 50 people had to be rescued when the steamer Fawn collided with the pier. In 1901, a fire destroyed the pavilion and part of the structure was closed. A succession of storms in 1909 caused the collapse of a further section of the pier. By 1913, the pier had become unsafe and was closed, unfortunately. It remained derelict until Rhyl council acquired it in the 1920s. The seaward end was demolished but the shoreward end was redeveloped and included the building of an amphitheatre. The pier reopened in 1930 and remained so until 1966, when it was again closed on safety grounds. By then it measured a mere 330 ft. Sadly, the pier was demolished on safety grounds long before I was born, and the fate of the pier was seen as symbolic of the decline of the town, alongside the demolition of the original Pavilion Theatre in 1974. 

Cheaper foreign travel is believed to have contributed to declining visitor numbers, which accelerated during the 1970s and the 1980s. Declining visitors resulted in a decline in fortunes for the town. Many local businesses, my family's included, ceased trading. Since 2007, the number of vacant units in Rhyl town centre has doubled, and the town has lost a number of major retailers. It's little wonder, then, that Rhyl is now home to some of the poorest wards in Wales, if not the UK, but Rhyl is still a popular holiday destination despite this, attracting visitors from across the UK. But we cannot compete with cheap foreign holidays. Benidorm might not have Rhyl's charm or excellent scenery, but it does have the advantage of near-constant sunshine and warm waters. It doesn't hurt that you can get a return flight from Manchester to Alicante cheaper than you can get a train to Rhyl. Transport for Wales might need to answer that problem. With more and more budget airlines springing up offering flights to far-flung destinations for peanuts, how can our seaside towns possibly hope to compete? 

The decline I've witnessed in Rhyl has also been echoed in other towns across the Welsh coastline, and, unfortunately, Governments at all levels have not taken sufficient action to halt this decline. The title of this debate poses a question: is restoring our seaside towns to their former glory a necessary task or an impossible ask? I don't believe it's impossible. It certainly won't be easy, but if we all work together—local government, Welsh Government and the UK Government, alongside the leisure and travel industry—then we can compete with foreign travel. We can put seaside towns like Rhyl back on the destinations map. We just need to think creatively, work collectively and collaboratively to sell the benefits of our seaside towns worldwide, and work to help to create a year-round offer and work to innovate and diversify our seaside towns.

Our seaside towns are on the shores of some of the world's best scenery. Rhyl, for example, is just a stone's throw away from the Clwydian range, which, as we speak, are seeking to become an international dark sky park. We can attract visitors from across the globe to not only marvel at our beaches, our hillsides, our rivers and valleys, but also our unrivalled views of the heavens. We have some of the best natural beauty in the world. We are a nation steeped in history, abound with fantastic folklore and deep mythology, but we're absolutely terrible at selling it, and that's the problem. Our own citizens are not aware of the treasures on their doorstep, so how can we expect people from further afield to be clued up?

We might not be able to recreate the Victorian demand for the seaside air—I'm not deluded and time does move on—but we can and must sell the benefits of our seaside towns. We have to integrate and innovate our leisure and tourism markets, promote our outstanding food and drink. We can't do cheaper but we can do better. [Interruption.] And the Denbigh plum while we're at it—why not? It did come as a disappointment to some Members that I didn't mention that in the speech, so there we go. I hope this Welsh Government will take leadership on this, and help rejuvenate and revitalise our seaside towns, from Rhyl to Rhoose, Porthcawl to Prestatyn. Diolch yn fawr.