“It is time to put our environment and people before the profits of large corporations or house builders”

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Peredur Owen Griffiths, who represents Plaid Cymru, is one of four regional Senedd Members serving the South Wales East region.

A few weeks ago, I visited a number of sites within Caerphilly County Borough along with my Senedd colleague Delyth Jewell to highlight the lack of priority given to environmental issues by the Labour-controlled council.

We visited the former Thomas Ness site by Caerphilly train station which the local authority is looking to develop for housing despite its toxic legacy. The ground is heavily contaminated and any disturbance of it could have a serious impact on the local neighbourhood and further afield if any chemicals get into the water table. We also went to Hendredenny where residents have been affected by flooding. With the climate crisis only getting worse, many communities will be impacted by flooding in the future due to the adverse weather that will become more common.

We also visited the Ty Llwyd quarry in Ynysddu which was once owned and operated by the notorious Monsanto, whose poor environmental record speaks for itself. There we met the independent councillors Jan Jones and Janine Reed, who have done a great job of highlighting its dangers and holding the local authority to account. The fact this site is still a risk to local residents decades after it was in operation is remarkable and disgraceful in equal measure. It is long overdue that the authorities to step up and force remedial work upon those responsible for dumping whatever they wanted there. There is precedent for this as Monsanto agreed to clear up Brofiscin quarry in Groesfaen, Rhondda Cynon Taf, decades after they polluted it. 

Taken together, these three visits painted a poor picture for the environment within our county borough. We could have easily visited another half dozen or so sites within the county borough that have caused consternation to local residents. It seems that profit is being put before the environment and local objection in far too many cases. It is time to put our environment and people before the profits of large corporations or house builders whose regard to the communities they affect appear to be way down on their list of priorities. In the coming months, Plaid Cymru will be doing much on this to hold the Labour-controlled local authority to account over their responsibilities to people and the environment.

Another matter that is of great concern to the communities I represent is the potential collapse of bus services. This is because the Labour Government have announced in a few short months that they will be withdrawing the funding they provided during the pandemic to protect bus services. Bus operators have warned this will leave them with no choice but to axe routes. No prizes for guessing where the axe is most likely to fall – in the more isolated communities where car ownership is lower and people have a greater reliance on buses.

As the Plaid Cymru spokesperson for Older People, I am particularly concerned about the implications for pensioners who are more likely to be left stranded without an adequate bus service in their community. This will lead to greater loneliness, less opportunities for shopping or visiting friends and risk increasing mental health problems amongst our elderly. That is totally unacceptable.

A few weeks ago, I quizzed the First Minister about what impact assessment had been conducted about the decision to withdraw bus funding. If any impact assessment has been conducted, the First Minister did not reference it in the answer that came back to me in the Senedd. This week, Plaid Cymru brought a debate to our Parliament calling for the extension of funding to bus operators but the Labour group refused to back us. Now, they are coming under pressure from within their own party as a number of Labour local authority leaders have joined Plaid Cymru in criticising the move. As with their refusal to back free school dinners for years and years only to eventually cede to our demands in the co-operation agreement, I am hopeful that Labour will see the error of their ways, reverse their decision and guarantee the future of bus services in our communities.

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