Across the Chamber, I think it's fair to say, we are in awe of the Welsh ambulance service. It is an absolute life-saver, and I am very clear that I’ll be supporting this motion this evening. Both the Welshpool and Caernarfon air ambulance bases provide mid and north Wales respectively with a lifeline in the form of emergency medical support and transit.

Rural healthcare is challenging, we know. But we need more rural healthcare, not less, and what this proposal, as we understand it at the moment, is saying is that we will have less coverage across rural areas, particularly for Mid and West Wales, which I represent. It’s my strong view that the Welsh air ambulance and the Welsh NHS have not been able to demonstrate by independent evidence that more lives will be saved, in particular in those areas where the bases currently reside, and therefore it is really clear we must oppose the potential and proposed closures. It’s hard, really, to describe—unless you live, in my case, in Mid and West Wales—the absolute public outcry about the proposal. There is real, genuine fear that people will lose lives. We need to be clear that that is not going to be the case. There is not a shop, there is not a cafe around where I live, and where many of us live in Mid and West Wales—and perhaps the same in north Wales as well—where there isn’t a poster saying 'Save the Welsh Air Ambulance'. Many people, as you’ve heard, are not just thinking it’s about their lives, their relatives’ lives, their neighbours’ lives—it is about the fact that they’ve invested their heart and soul in fundraising for this absolutely important service.

It's worth noting that, since these proposals were leaked to the press, the air ambulance and Welsh NHS have been so far unwilling to provide the data. Communication is key to this, and, let’s be honest, it’s been a mess up to today. Russell George has helpfully tried to navigate us through the changes, and the mixture in who’s responsible for what. We maybe have got our heads around it, but the people who are investing their lives and the pennies and the pounds that they put into it will not have done. At the moment, I can see no option but to maintain the service as it is and commit to the bases remaining where they are until there is absolute clear, independent scrutiny of the figures and there is a much better communications plan of the data, and an openness to listen to the people that this will affect. Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn.