It's fitting that I follow the contribution of colleague Joel James as the Chair of the Senedd Petitions Committee that Joel also sits on. It's in that capacity today, Presiding Officer, that I wish to say a few words, focusing on a petition entitled, 'Help Welsh Communities Buy Community Assets: Implement Part 5 Chapter 3 of the Localism Act 2011'. It called on 

'the next Welsh Government to immediately introduce the provisions of Part 5 Chapter 3 of the Localism Act 2011 to ensure groups in Wales have the legal right to buy & manage community assets.'

Llywydd, this petition was submitted by Dan Evans and received 655 signatures. The last time we considered the petition as a committee, we noted this inquiry and the report from the Local Government and Housing Committee, and we agreed that we would highlight the petition and what it stands for in this debate today. It looks at community assets in a broad sense, but there have also been a number of petitions that we've considered as a committee seeking to specifically preserve local buildings, for example Cowbridge Girls School or Coleg Harlech.

Every single one of us in our communities will have a building that doesn't make enough money for its owner, a building that has become perhaps too costly to maintain, but nonetheless holds that cherished place in the hearts of our residents and the people who live in our communities. Presiding Officer, in February of last year we debated the Cowbridge Girls School petition. I argued that it was far too difficult for passionate and committed local people to buy community assets and that there must be more that all of us in this very Chamber can do to support them.

I am particularly pleased to read the Local Government and Housing Committee's report towards the end of last year, and the 16 recommendations that they have made, to drive the higher level of support, and I am pleased that the Welsh Government has accepted the majority of these recommendations and engaged with the spirit of those recommendations that it didn't accept in full. But if I may, Presiding Officer, I would urge the Minister to look again at some of those recommendations where the committee is calling for action within 12 months and the Government is saying, and I quote again, 'Resources will not support it'. I'm willing to accept—I'm quite a practical person, I believe—and I'm willing to accept that the practical considerations of these recommendations sometimes mean that 'within 12 months' might mean 13, 14 or 15 months. But I would welcome the Minister setting a practical and real deliverable target for this type of work to ensure that it does happen for the people of these local communities who really do cherish these buildings, and setting it out as realistically as possible, and that it isn't kicked into the long grass so that we see another petition in 17, 18 months in the future that needn't be. Diolch yn fawr iawn.