2. Will the Minister outline the Welsh Government's strategy for the delivery of community green spaces? OQ59280

Welsh Government is committed to ensuring everyone has access to green spaces close to home. We are delivering this through programmes, including Local Places for Nature, community facilities, landfill disposals tax communities scheme and access improvement grants. Over 1,400 green spaces have been created by Local Places for Nature alone.

Thank you, Minister. Minister, almost three years ago, you established a green recovery task and finish group led by the chair of Natural Resources Wales. In their report to you, one of their key recommendations was reimagining urban areas and green spaces, building space for nature in the design of urban landscapes. There are many dreadful examples of urban development with little thought to green spaces for recreation and well-being. What specific actions will you take over the course of this Senedd term to address how, in your planning and development policies, this can be addressed? People want places to live and green spaces to enjoy, and not just buildings to sit in. 

Thank you. We have several projects that we are taking forward during this term of Government. I mentioned a couple of them in my opening answer to you; certainly, Local Places for Nature I think has been incredibly successful, and it is very well received by our constituents all across Wales. And we are continuing to support and expand on the valuable work of that specific programme, and build on its success. We've allocated approximately £10 million to all 22 local authorities and the three national parks; £1.4 million—I know you take a particular interest in Bridgend—has been allocated to projects in the Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Swansea and Neath Port Talbot local authority areas to support that nature enhancement of community green spaces here in Wales. There are other, obviously, schemes—the community facilities programme I’m sure you’re very well aware of—and I think what is really important is that communities themselves take ownership of green spaces.

I absolutely endorse your ambition, and also NRW’s ambition, to reimagine urban spaces. At a time when people’s mental health is quite fragile, this is a really important thing. In my experience, it isn’t local vandals who are the problem—it’s people operating on grass-cutting contracts who, basically, mow down trees and flowers that people have planted to make their own area look nicer. I just wondered how the Welsh Government plans to ensure that everybody is engaged with this, with the importance of reimagining our urban green spaces. We don’t need to spray weedkiller to kill off weeds because it also kills off plants as well and it adds to the phosphorus problem. So, how do you think you might be able to ensure that, in urban areas, we have a complete partnership approach with our communities and with all our services that are being delivered, so that we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet?

Thank you. I think you raise a very important point, and you’ll be aware of some of the campaigns as a Government we’ve brought forward. So, one of them is—. Carolyn Thomas, our colleague, has been working to develop and promote the ‘It’s for Them’ campaign, and that’s about helping local communities understand the importance of verges and green spaces for wildlife, for instance, as well as, obviously, planting wild flowers as well. So, there are a variety of schemes that we’re bringing forward. We’ve got the ‘Nature isn’t Neat’ scheme, which I think has been very successful as well.

Minister, as you say, community groups are doing some very good work in greening our local communities, and this is vital, isn’t it, in meeting the challenges of climate change, in connecting people more with nature, and gaining popular support for the transition that we need if we are really going to meet the environmental challenges of the future? One example of that, I think, is in the Maindee area of Newport East. On Saturday, the First Minister will be coming along to open the Triangle site, which is all about greening the local community—there’s a community café, there’s a performance space; some really, really good work has been done. So, Minister, will you continue to look at how you can support these community groups right across Wales, with their litter picks, with their planting, with their greening activity?

Yes, thank you, and certainly it sounds a great project in Maindee and, if the First Minister is attending on Saturday, I’m sure the event will be very successful. But I think it is really important that you work with communities about what they want in their open spaces and their green spaces, because then I think they’re valued more, and they’re respected more as well. So, certainly, working closely with my colleague the Minister for Climate Change, we will certainly look at what more we can do across Wales.