Plaid Cymru’s Assembly candidate for Caerphilly, Lindsay Whittle, has told small business owners that his party can help them grow, and make Wales a “global leader”.
Speaking at the Welsh Innovation Centre for Enterprise (ICE) on Friday April 15, as part of an election event co-hosted by the centre and Caerphilly Observer, Mr Whittle outlined Plaid’s ambitions to create a wealthier, and more eco-friendly Wales.
The former South East Wales Regional AM said: “We want to create some new economic opportunities. We’re surrounded, as a town, by major supermarkets in Caerphilly, and we have to get into their supply chains, their prime suppliers to get local products sold in the supermarkets.
“The public sector itself – whether it’s the local government or national government – should be using all of the industry, and the produce, and the innovation, and the ideas that exist in industrial estates and business hubs such as this.
“We want to see a series of national champions. We want to push a Welsh unit of long-standing indigenous companies, and we want to see an innovation foundry for business in Wales, much like the Northern Power example in England.
“We want to encourage tall oaks from little acorns growing.”
Mr Whittle, who was leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council until his Assembly election in 2011, anecdotally spoke of the importance of investment in green infrastructure.
He said: “We must take national advantage of engineering expertise. On this very spot where we are [in Caerphilly Business Park], was once an engineering company in the 1970s called BDR. They employed 70 people, and they built the biggest piece of equipment for an oil rig that was ever made in Caerphilly.
“When the workers were taking it off the estate, they got to the end of Van Road, where there used to be a bridge, and it wouldn’t fit under.
“It was on a low-loader, and the apprentice of the factory came up with the idea of letting the tyres of the low-loader down and it just made it under the bridge. How innovative is that?
“We can be global leaders here in Wales, with this kind of imaginative thinking. Wave and tidal power are there to be used, we are no longer reliant on fossil fuels. The natural energy is out there, and we have to capitalise on it as a country and as a nation.”
Mr Whittle also spoke of Plaid Cymru’s plans to reduce business rates.
He added: “Small businesses, the economy, support and advice to small businesses is very important. We’ve got to strengthen the current business networks, lower bureaucracy and reduce business rate relief.
“We think we can reduce rate relief to somewhere in the region of 70,000 SMEs. Business rates should be reviewed every three years, that’s essential.
“For all of your businesses, your best asset is your people. I think we’ve got the ideas and the drive to build our country. It’s up to us. Plaid Cymru is the change that Wales needs.”
Letting the tyres down on heavy industry, That`s about it from The Welsh Nationalists, Thier representatives all appear to be giving advice which really is above their pay grades. They tend to promote people within, beyond their levels of ability and expertise.
But. in Mr Whittles case this Assembly Election is his Swan Song, so lets indulge him. He has never won an election except to Caerphilly Council, and only then with the narrow Nationalist support of his friends in the small ward he represents in Caerphilly, in that respect and in the role of Councillor he has done a respectably sucessful job.
Lol… the village idiot is back.
Where will Mr Whittle go ? when he comes in behind Labour UKIP MR Beanee and others in this election, much of this failure down to the fact that some in your Welsh Nationalist Party have `abandoned` him, often seen campaigning on his own or with a band of two or three others, where does that leave this honourable man? a man who has given sterling public service all his adult life, a man who has dedicated his life to representing others and the communities of Caerphilly, and Wales.
The Way he has been treated in respect to his political presevation and advancement by his Welsh Nationalist Colleagues is a disgrace. An honourable man largely abandoned, it is nothing less than is expected from The Welsh Nationalist Party, who swap, change and abandon policies and processes to try to fit the `popular` political `theme` which may exist at any particular point in time, abondoning and ditching the `INDEPENDENCE` policy which has existed since the parties inception, and was the ONLY reason for the party to exist at all.
All this comment from a REFORMED `Village idiot.i.e. a former Welsh Nationalist.
Humm! – former Plaid Cymru who tells lies then thank the Lord you have gone … Plaid`s gain is Labours loss
Now your party. The Welsh Nationalist Party, have ditched its only one identifiable political policy, [INDEPENDENCE FOR WALES] is your party guilty of leaving itself open to critisism for promoting yourselves as “The Party of Wales” – when quite clearly, the electorate of Wales placed you behind Labour, the Tories and UKIP at the 2015 national election – so would “the 4th Party of Wales” be more
appropriate and honest?
Very childish, are you home from school early ?