Support quality, independent, local journalism…that matters

From just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts. Become a member today

It’s not too often that I’m lost for words but Caerphilly Council’s decision to press ahead with changes to home to school transport is truly baffling.

It will mean hundreds and hundreds of pupils either having to walk along what I consider are unsafe roads or alternatively making their own transport arrangements. For example, the proposals will see children crossing the very busy Northern Bypass in many places.

Also in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis – which will only worsen because of the Middle East war – the council wants to introduce these changes to free school transport from this September.

Parents are furious and so am I and I call open the Labour council leader Jamie Pritchard to order a rethink. Surely, the safety of our pupils has to be the absolute priority above saving money.

Artist impressions of the proposed £45m redevelopment of Caerphilly town centre have just been published. To say I am underwhelmed would be an understatement.

How could anyone imagine these dreadful designs would be suitable in a historic town with the wonderful Caerphilly Castle opposite baffles me? The last thing we need is an identikit development that could be built anywhere in the UK.

We need imagination from architects, not something that might have been generated by AI. The views of people in Caerphilly on these designs need to be listened to. According to Labour a few years back, Caerphilly Council was a listening local authority. Easy to say, so let’s see that in reality.

It was a pleasure to host pupils from my old school Cwm Ifor and also Ysgol Gymraeg Penalltau, Ystrad Mynach, at the Senedd. It is important that young people are educated in how the political system works and can see democracy in action.

I also met young carers from Caerphilly. I’m full of admiration for those young people under 18 years of age who have the responsibility for looking after a parent or a sibling.

They do such important work as cleaning, washing and shopping through to general care like giving medication or even paying bills. I’ve always believed that young carers are grossly undervalued by society in general.

This is my last Caerphilly Observer column before the Senedd elections on May 7. The clear choice for voters, as Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth laid out in his Newport conference speech, is between a Plaid government and one led by Reform. What sort of society do we want to live in? That is the question. 

I hope voters across Wales will follow the lead of those in Caerphilly last October that elected me in the by-election.