, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Transport
I understand the argument, I also understand the evidence, and the evidence from the UK Climate Change Committee shows that is not the case, because if you are building more roads, you have embodied carbon in the roads themselves, which are considerable…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Transport
Now, there was a series of points made that I will try to address in turn. I was struck by Joel James's argument. He said he's in favour of a clean air Act but he's against disincentives, and his account of what cycling was like left me quite puzzled. We…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Transport
Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Members are going to have to answer their grandchildren's questions one day as to what they did when the United Nations issued a red alert for the state of the planet, and based on their contributions this afternoon, all we've heard…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Transport
Formally.
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Trees and Timber
Thank you. As I said when discussing transport, we need to make the right thing to do the easy thing to do, and I think that applies right across the behaviour change challenges for tackling climate change. I think the hedges and edges concept, which was…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Trees and Timber
Thank you very much. I completely agree with all the points that she made. I think the pandemic has shown us the connection to nature that taking an interest in your garden and planting trees can have, and I've certainly seen it in the case of my own garden…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Trees and Timber
Thank you for that constructive intervention, and I've called Darren Millar many things in my time, but never a major tree enthusiast. So, that's one to add to the list. I think he rightly points that there are policy tensions and sometimes absurd and…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Trees and Timber
Perhaps I can give Buffy Williams points for trying to turn this into a discussion of the situation of flooding in Pentre. I'm afraid that's not something we explicitly looked at. I'd be happy to write on an update of how NRW are getting on with that review…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Trees and Timber
Thank you very much, and that's an inspired idea of, 'Plant a tree in 2023 and another in 2024'. I will shamelessly take that off you, I think, Mike Hedges—I think that's brilliant. I will take that away and work up something. Thank you very, very much…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Trees and Timber
Thank you very much for that series of comments and questions. In terms of your last point, on the threat to urban trees, I'd said very clearly at the very beginning that we need to protect the trees that we have. Now, that doesn't mean that in every…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Trees and Timber
I'm answering your questions as patiently as I can and going through one at a time. I could have been far more brutal in my response, frankly, Janet Finch-Saunders. I'm trying to be kind to you, but you are making it hard. As opposed to excluding the unions…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Trees and Timber
Thank you very much. It's always difficult, I know, for opposition spokespeople who have to write a contribution in advance of a Minister setting out what's happening, and it's a shame that much of what she accused me of had been addressed in my statement…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Trees and Timber
Diolch yn fawr. Let me begin by saying that trees are a good thing. We must protect the trees that we have, and plant 86 million more of them in Wales by the end of this decade, if we are to tackle the climate emergency. We need a step change in woodland…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: The road network
'is a serious wake-up call for Wales', and I was also encouraged when I heard her say a week ago that 'rhetoric must now be met with bold and decisive action' when she called for us to declare a nature emergency. I've been reading about this thing called…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: The road network
Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd, and I thank Members for their contributions. I was particularly pleased to hear Janet Finch-Saunders say at the conclusion there that, in the sixth Senedd, it's time for us to reset the discussion, and I was very encouraged two…
, Plenary
Member Debate under Standing Order 11.21(iv): Bus services
To respond to some of the comments in the many excellent contributions, I was pleased to see so many Members highlight the role that the Fflecsi demand-responsive bus service has played, and is playing in the Conwy Valley as Janet Finch-Saunders mentioned…
, Plenary
Member Debate under Standing Order 11.21(iv): Bus services
I'm really encouraged by the degree of consensus there is, both on the importance of buses and on some of the measures that we need to take collectively to improve the situation. As Huw Irranca-Davies said at the outset, we need to restore the public purpose…
, Plenary
Member Debate under Standing Order 11.21(iv): Bus services
Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you for the debate.
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Roads review
Thank you. That doesn't fall within the remit of the roads review, but it does fall within the Wales transport strategy that we published in March, and we are looking at that last-mile delivery network and the potential for doing things differently. And as…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Roads review
Thank you. I certainly agree that we need to be spending more money maintaining the highway network. The highway network is the largest asset that the Welsh Government has, the network within our own ownership, and obviously, that also applies to the local…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Roads review
Thank you very much. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the situation in Trefnant, but I'm very happy to look at it and have a further conversation with the Member. We are providing this year a record amount of investment for active travel infrastructure—£75…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Roads review
In terms of the impact on business, one of the problems businesses have is congestion where you have people using cars to make journeys that could be made by other ways, but instead are snarling up the road network. So, if we get this right, we can take…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Roads review
As Mark Isherwood said, he has persistently made the case against the red route and, as the old line goes, some people just won't take 'yes' for an answer. We've now responded to that by freezing the scheme and reviewing it. I would have thought he would've…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Roads review
On that final point, I would note that 50 years ago, we had significantly higher levels of public transport use, walking and cycling, and the hills haven't suddenly appeared in the last 50 years. I think what has changed is our attitudes, our expectations and…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Roads review
Thank you. I think it's important we take a consistent approach. We're saying that all schemes that currently aren't under construction need to be within the scope of the review, because the review needs to make a set of judgments about when road schemes, are…
