Getting bus services right is something that will be transformative for Wales, and, certainly, in terms of the long term, I know that the Deputy Minister shares the passion that many of us have to ensure that we have a bus network that works for Wales. That will take time, it needs investment, but what we are talking about at this point in time are the services that people in our communities currently use and rely on, and the risk to the future of that service. That's why we're putting forward this debate, because of representations by those directly affected by proposed cuts to services.

Looking at census data, which is really interesting, when you drill down in terms of car ownership, you get a picture of those isolated communities, where car ownership—. You know, it's not something that people just like to use every now and then. There are no other options. They're not close to train stations; bus travel is the only travel. Car ownership rates in the region that I represent vary greatly. If you look at the Vale of Glamorgan, very high car ownership in many places; Cardiff is variable. You'd expect the city centre itself, about 90 per cent in some wards have no cars, but, obviously, that's very much in the city centre—no surprise.

But you look at communities like Glyncoch, just outside of Pontypridd, where there hasn't been a decision to extend the metro line, despite local calls in terms of the halt there, but car ownership's amongst the lowest in Wales. For people there, what it means when they don't have a bus service or buses are less frequent or don't show up, which is a huge problem currently, because of the shortage of bus drivers, is missed hospital or doctor appointments; late to school or college; late to work, or not getting to work; fewer wages; losing employment; late collecting children from school; waiting in the rain only for no bus to come; feeling isolated, disconnected, restricted to their homes; unable to be independent.

For children, buses provide absolutely essential access to education, but also to breakfast clubs, after-school clubs and extra-curricular activities. Buses allow their parents to live their lives too. But we are seeing, increasingly so, that people are missing out on school, as illustrated by Jenny Rathbone, because of not being able to afford transport if they fall outside of that bracket in terms of getting free school transport, or simply that bus services are not there.

So, if you look at some of the investment going into trains at the moment, it was mentioned earlier in terms of the Treherbert line, which is also in my region. If you see the responses from local people to the announcement in terms of the scheme that will close the railway for at least eight months—a significant amount of time—well, for many people who are along that train line, they know the bus services are either non-existent and are hugely concerned because they also have seen when bus replacement services are used, demand has risen in other buses, because people know the bus replacement schemes have not been working. In theory, they're supposed to work, but that's not been the reality, because people have been waiting maybe an hour, an hour and a half, to try and get on that bus replacement, and then the journey taking so much longer than what is said on paper.

So, we've seen an increase in demand, then, for local buses, on many of the services that are at risk, unless the scheme is extended. So, we really are talking about ensuring equity of access. I know that many of us see, in terms of our response to the climate emergency, that we need to encourage people to try and transition from cars to using public transport. But that's not to accept the reality for the majority of people in many of those communities, where they use buses daily.

Another issue that has been raised with me in terms of South Wales Central is that many machines have been broken on buses, and they can be very expensive to replace, and it often takes weeks for the machines to arrive, if they are able to get them from Europe. That means we don't have an accurate picture of some bus routes in terms of passenger numbers, and I wonder if this is something that had also been raised with the Deputy Minister, because we do talk about not having the numbers for some routes, but actually, there isn't an accurate picture for some bus routes that are crucial in terms of connecting areas like Pontypridd to other parts of RCT.

I am glad that we have been able, through the co-operation agreement, to agree on some key priority areas where we would like to see greater investment, and this is one of them, but I think crucially, we must think about all the ways we can address the immediate issues here, and what we're asking is for an extension, so that we can secure the services that people currently rely on for the reasons outlined, whilst we work on long-term solutions. Diolch.