, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Flooding—Preparing for winter
Can I, first of all, thank you and Vikki for the invitation to come up and meet with the residents there in the community centre, but also to walk the street affected? It was good to meet with them and to hear their individual stories and to hear the support…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Flooding—Preparing for winter
Laura, thank you very much, and I think I can give you something of an update here and now today. First of all, like all those affected by flooding, I extend my sincere sympathies to them. It is a horrendous experience. Now, what I understand is that NRW have…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Flooding—Preparing for winter
Mick, thank you very much, and you give us a timely reminder, as we face the incidents today, but also going forward, that we do need to thank those people who are the often derided council workers, and NRW staff as well, and engineers, who will be out there…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Flooding—Preparing for winter
Yes, and I think it's a reflection of the fact that, as I said in my opening statement, even with the scale of investment that we're putting in now and the framework that we've put behind preparing for flood incidents, we're not going to be able to do…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Flooding—Preparing for winter
Darren, thank you very much. Look, I'll make the commitment that we'll contact NRW and ask them to get in contact with you. The one thing I can't claim to be is a flood engineer, so I won't express an expert opinion on the left bank of Kinmel Bay. But thank…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Flooding—Preparing for winter
Carolyn, thank you very much indeed. I've seen the phenomenon so often that you refer to, where you have, whether it's agricultural land or badly maintained building development land, spillages coming off with a flash flood, for example, or even just in a…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Flooding—Preparing for winter
Delyth, diolch yn fawr iawn. Several really important points in there. The first being that, indeed, this is not a matter that's a long way away, it's here and now, and if we look at, for example, the flood and coastal erosion mapping that we've done, it…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Flooding—Preparing for winter
Thank you, Janet—and some really good points there—first of all, for your recognition that climate change is, indeed, driving this, the increased number and frequency and severity of traumatic weather incidents. Not one of them can be allocated to climate…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Flooding—Preparing for winter
Dirprwy Lywydd, we must all be aware of the risks of flooding throughout the year. The public play a crucially important role in terms of improving community resilience. By sharing information and experiences with our neighbours, we can strengthen our support…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Flooding—Preparing for winter
We cannot and we will not be complacent. We know it is not possible to stop all coastal erosion or all flooding, but the Welsh Government is taking steps to reduce the consequences and help create more resilient communities right across Wales. As we enter…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Flooding—Preparing for winter
Dirprwy Lywydd, whilst we are making progress towards net zero, we also need to respond to the impacts of climate change that we are already seeing in our communities and in our lives. Last winter was one of warmest and wettest on record. It demonstrated the…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Flooding—Preparing for winter
Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. I want to start today by saying that I am keenly aware of how devastating the impacts of flooding can be on homes, livelihoods and people’s lives. And I am so very sorry to hear of the terrible flooding that’s taken place in England…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas
I don't think we can wait to take action on these issues, and we're genuinely not. The nutrient management boards—which you referred to, Joyce, quite rightly—when they were established, were designed to look at the load of phosphates in rivers and how that…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas
I genuinely don't want to pre-empt—and I say this regularly—the work that's going on in terms of looking at agricultural pollution and the way to deal with that. I think it's right to say to the independent chair, 'Look at it, but look at the work that's…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas
Yes, indeed. Well, there are many measures we're taking: the massive investment we've put, for example, in the Teifi catchment. The Teifi catchment is a really good example of taking a multiplicity of approaches to tackle not only CSO pollution, but…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas
Adam, thank you very much, and you nicely teased me at the beginning of your contribution, which I might return to at the end. On the reform of any regulatory structure—and we notice, not least as we enter into party conference season, there's a fair bit of…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas
Thank you very much. First of all, on the Usk river, that's one of our most important rivers. It is also one of the rivers where there are some of the most complex issues, and it's why taking a catchment approach to how we clean up our rivers is important, so…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas
Thank you very much, Mike. Both yourself and Delyth have raised this issue, and I think it might be helpful to write to both of you, and any other Members who are interested in this, with an update on what we're doing on microplastic monitoring. Just to say…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas
Thank you very much indeed. Let me try and rattle through some of those. First of all, I don't think the public are powerless, without a doubt, and, in fact, it's good to see reflected in the statement of priorities made by the First Minister today that…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas
Thank you, Delyth, and thank you for your welcome for today's statement too. There are many questions that you've posed there.
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas
Diolch yn fawr iawn, Janet. You covered quite a range of issues there, and thank you for that, because it recognises the fact that this is a complex issue that needs quite a number of tools used to resolve it. Now, if I turn, first of all, to the matter of…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas
I'm proud of the progress that we've already made in terms of improving water quality and I will continue to work closely with partners in Government and across the water sector to realise our shared goals of a greener and more prosperous Wales for us and for…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas
With the reality of the climate crisis, the risk to our water sector is growing. The pressures on water supplies and on infrastructure are unprecedented, and the importance of building resilience to climate change simply cannot be overstated. It will take all…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas
And this is fitting, not least because our iconic rivers, like the Severn, the Dee and the Wye, of course, cross national borders. What happens upstream in England impacts downstream in Wales and vice versa. And so we must work together, and the renewed…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas
Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. Over the summer, we've been working at pace to tackle pollution in our rivers, lakes and seas, including stepping up our joint efforts with the new UK Government. I'm pleased to say that we are entering the Senedd's autumn term with…
