My thanks to the Petitions Committee for bringing this forward. I'm going to take a slight diversion, and that diversion runs from Chepstow to Conwy. 

The idea of a Cambrian trail through the Cambrian mountains was first envisaged back in 1968, and the late Tony Drake, a legend in Welsh walking and mapping of these walks, in 1994, produced the first guidebook of the Cambrian way, which went all that way from Chepstow to Conwy, through the Cambrian mountains. Back in 2019, I joined with Oliver Wicks, Richard Tyler and Will Renwick—some of you will follow Will Renwick; he's known on Twitter as WillWalksWales—and Ramblers Cymru, to launch, with ramblers, the Cicerone guide to the Cambrian way, the definitive guide now to what is known as the 'mountain connoisseur's walk'. It's the equivalent of two and a half times the ascent and descent of Everest over, depending on how fast you walk it, two and a half to three weeks; two weeks if you really run it fast like Will does. And, in the last 18 months, my credit to Ramblers Cymru and volunteers who have waymarked the entire route. But this is a wild route; nobody should try this route without actually knowing what they're doing. The waymarking is not what you'd see on some other well-waymarked routes there. Four hundred and seventy-nine kilometres, the mountain connoisseur's walk takes in the Brecon Beacons, the great wilds of the Cambrian mountains and Snowdonia.

So, I stand, actually, Dirprwy Lywydd, to praise the wild and awesome—in that literal sense of the word 'awesome'—beauty of the Cambrian mountains. Now, I was born and brought up in Gowerton. My playground as a young man through my teenage years and early 20s, was actually the Gower; that's where I was brought up. It was the first ever area of outstanding natural beauty in the whole of the country. I used to delight in telling UK parliamentary colleagues this: 'Do you want to see where AONBs started? It was in Wales. It was in the Gower.' And, of course, I understand how such a designation can help preserve the very best of a landscape, but, importantly and critically, can also maintain living communities as well. These have to be vibrant, vital communities—the point about not just agriculture, but tourism and other uses within that area.

Now, I've also taken through, with my good friend Hilary Benn, a Bill that created the South Downs National Park—the first for three, four decades that we created—so, I understand the careful balancing of decisions and, indeed, quasi-judicial decisions, the nature of such decisions that face Ministers, and how this must be based on very strict criteria and really good engagement, as well, with communities and stakeholders. So, I am interested in hearing more about the Welsh Government's work on designations—critically, the management of designations, because it's not just giving something a label; it's how you then manage that and work with people—and actually how we bring this up to date in view of things such as the climate and the biodiversity crises too. So, not just old designations fit for the last century, but modern designations as well that take into account what's happening in our country.

And finally, Dirprwy Lywydd, this is not a competition. When I stand on top of the Bwlch mountain in my constituency, and I stand on the Devil's Pulpit, as I do, looking down across Nantymoel and Ogmore vale, there is no place closer to heaven than that. It's not a competition, but my congratulations to the petitioners. You've started a debate now that is bigger than the Cambrian mountains alone.