Bird Culling Suspension
You will have seen reports of the culling of birds at Caerphilly Castle. Caerphilly Bird Rescue raised their concerns, along with many members of the public.
As soon as I heard what had happened, I wrote to the Welsh Government Minister responsible for heritage sites to highlight my concerns.
Many people have argued that this form of bird control is inhumane and there have to be other methods other than culling.
I’m pleased that following that representation I made directly to the Minister, a decision has now been made to suspend bird culling at Caerphilly Castle until it has completed a comprehensive review of its approach to bird control.
I’ve also secured a meeting with Cadw officials on June 21 in which I will be asking several questions about the continuation of this practice. Wayne David MP will also be attending with me.
Affordable Housing
I’ve continually argued that too many expensive houses are being built in the wrong places at the expense of affordable housing – where it is needed.
It’s simply not acceptable for large house builders to be able to continually ignore demands to provide housing for those who need it.
Existing planning policy gives too much leeway to developers to build executive style homes that price out many local people. The recent Virginia Park development is just such an example.
The policy just doesn’t enable people to buy affordable homes. In a question to the First Minister on June 4 I asked if the First Minister agreed that new housing developments need to have much stricter requirements for genuinely affordable housing and that private developers should be held account for that.
The First Minister agreed and the Welsh Government will shortly publish further actions that can be taken to ensure the planning system enables affordable housing to be built where it is needed.