2. What discussions has the First Minister had with Denbighshire County Council regarding plans to replace the Llannerch bridge between Trefnant and Tremeirchion? OQ59153

I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. Following discussions with Welsh Government officials, I can confirm that the council has bid for funding via our resilient roads fund to assist with the replacement of the bridge.

Thank you for that answer, First Minister. A public meeting was recently held at the White House in Rhuallt, regarding progress with the much-needed reconstruction of Llannerch bridge, following its erosion through natural causes with storm Christoph, back in 2021. Local Denbighshire residents, councillors, council leaders, and departmental heads from the authority engaged productively on officers' strategy to complete a replacement by 2026, pending Welsh Government's approval of Denbighshire County Council's recently submitted, as you've mentioned, business case for funding. As you know, residents of rural communities such as Trefnant and Tremeirchion have been isolated for two years since the bridge's collapse, and the lack of a replacement continues to prove a barrier to the Welsh Government's own climate change policy on banning road building in Wales, also necessitating lengthy road diversions and adding to burdensome costs to family budgets and various council departmental budgets. The overwhelming character of the public meeting was of a united endeavour and wish to work across the political divide to ensure that this key piece of local and historic infrastructure is restored at the earliest juncture. So, First Minister, can you today provide details of your observations of the business case from Denbighshire County Council, and detail your strategy for making sure that the good people of rural Denbighshire can stay connected, with the replacement of Llannerch bridge, to ensure the safe movement of rural residents in Denbighshire? Thank you.

Llywydd, I thank Gareth Davies for those further questions. I agree with him—it's certainly not a matter of political contention that the needs of those local residents need to be attended to. The resilient roads fund, Llywydd, normally only takes applications from pre-existing schemes, but in this case, with the bridge having been destroyed by natural causes, an exception has been made so that a bid can be made to that fund. And the bid, as the Member said, has now been received. It looks for some hundreds of thousands of pounds in the next financial year in order to do the necessary preparation work, because while the proposal, as I understand it, is essentially for a like-for-like replacement, with some additional active travel components, even a like-for-like bridge will require design work, and there will need to be modelling, given that it was flooding that caused the destruction of the bridge, and it's possible that some modest land acquisition will be needed to take it forward. Those are the components of work that Denbighshire County Council look to complete in the next financial year. Now, I have to just say to the Member that there are a large number of bids, as you would expect, for that fund, and officials are having to assess all the bids that come in, in the fairest possible way, and then will look to see whether it is possible to provide the funding that is being looked for next year, so that that necessary preparatory work can be completed and residents in the Member's constituency can look forward to a positive plan for the bridge to be replaced.