Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 15 February 2023.
I'm very grateful for the question and also, as Cefin Campbell has done, for recognising the important role that buses play in terms of serving our rural communities in particular. I will ask the Deputy Minister to provide a greater update as those discussions continue because, as I say, he is leading on those discussions, but I think that one thing he would probably want to highlight is the importance of our Fflecsi pilot scheme. Particularly, it's been an important innovation in some rural areas, including schemes in the Conwy valley and in Pembrokeshire, but also in some urban areas, including Newport and smaller towns such as Denbigh and Ruthin. I think there's a lot to learn from those, but, again, that's not something that will be developing at pace overnight, but certainly something I think that has a really important part to play in the longer term.