Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:40 pm on 4 October 2022.
Deputy Minister, the culture committee visited Llanberis and the National Slate Museum in the spring, and we received presentations from people there about the work that was being done to support the world heritage status and how that's going to be built upon. I was hugely impressed by that work and hugely impressed by the presentations that we received. I was especially impressed by the way in which Dafydd Wigley was driving and leading much of this work, and he gave us an excellent presentation both on the structures they'd created, but also on how they were bringing people together and then achieving a shared ambition and vision. What was screaming out at me during that presentation was, 'Why can't we do this elsewhere?' You've already referred in a previous answer to our shared history in the Heads of the Valleys, the great industrial arc from Blaenavon across to Dowlais. And I'm asking the question again: if the model works in the north, why can't it work elsewhere? And perhaps how we can then bring together people to maximise the potential of our shared heritage and our shared history elsewhere in the country.