Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 2:14 pm on 21 September 2022.
Well, I fully acknowledge that large road schemes like this are disruptive. They are noisy. They do cause harm to the environment. They do create considerable emissions. It's one of the reasons why we are reviewing our approach to road building. Just to note one point that Heledd Fychan made about this road being commissioned by the Government, I think it was commissioned by Ieuan Wyn Jones when he was the transport Minister when there was a coalition Government, so I don't think it's quite fair to make the insinuation that she does. It is being led, as you know, by a consortium, the Future Valleys consortium, and they assure us they have a whole series of measures in place to liaise with the local community, they have a range of engagement activities, they have a large reach on social media where they'll inform people when there are road closures. There is a community outreach officer whose role it is to meet with residents and community councillors who have concerns, and that's the right place to take the concerns. If you don't feel that you are getting satisfactory answers, by all means get in touch with me again, but that should be the first port of call.
As I say, we do need to think very hard about these large, expensive and difficult road schemes and whether or not continuing to do what we've always done is going to produce the result that we all want to see if we're going to achieve net zero and we're going to achieve well-being in our communities.