TIME TO DEVOLVE POLICE AND JUSTICE

It’s time to devolve control of Police and Justice to Wales as the powers are unsafe in the hands of any Westminster government and our communities will be put further at risk.  Back in 2017 Plaid Cymru called a vote on devolving policing during the passing of the Wales Bill through the Houses of Parliament. People should remember that given the choice of devolving Policing to Wales, the Conservatives voted it down and the Labour Party abstained - so much for standing up for our communities interests in Westminster.

It has to be unacceptable that Wales is the only nation in these islands without powers over its policing and justice policies – Northern Ireland, Scotland and even England do – but Wales doesn’t have control over Policing and Justice. Plaid Cymru is committed to the devolution of policing and justice to Wales to empower us to implement and pursue policies that serve the interests of our citizens and communities.

While Teresa May was perhaps too busy creating her hostile environment, Police numbers in Wales and England have been cut by some 19,704 police officers n since the Tories (and their eager Liberal Democrat’s coat holders) took office in 2010. Police budgets have been slashed, putting far fewer officers on the street. Welsh forces have been hit harder than those in the rest of the UK, due to an unfair funding formula. Between 2010 and 2018, the number of police officers in Wales decreased by 9%.

Plaid Cymru will recruit an extra 1,600 police officers – two for each community – to keep us safe. This would mean that our officers will be better rooted in our communities, instead of being stretched to cover large geographical areas with fewer resources. This would give the police the ability to focus on the priorities they need to keep us safe.

As argued by the Thomas Commission on Justice in Wales, we need to create integrated people-centred services – from prisons to counselling to housing – to undo the damage done by Cameron and May and to replace the present callous approach that prioritises targets over people’s needs. The extra police officers will help facilitate community engagement in which the police and the community can relay issues of mutual concern with targeted, community based problem-solving approaches to improve crime reduction and rehabilitation.

NEWPORT AND THE GREEN ENERGY REVOLUTION

Newport needs to directly benefit from the green energy revolution, with our deep water port and our highly skilled,  experienced and adaptable workers, we have massive advantages.  Thats why our city should be at the forefront of the development of off-shore wind, tidal lagoons, tidal turbines and a revisited Usk river barrage. 

It’s been almost 24  years ago the proposed Usk barrage was rejected by, then Welsh Secretary and later Conservative leader, William Hague, our city needs a second chance by making good use of its natural position and its skills to thrive and prosper. Since then our city has largely been neglected and ignored by government at all levels - it’s time for change. 

Newport as a port city, lies the river Usk, a river with the third highest rise and fall of tide in Wales, with its history of manufacturing and heavy industry, should be well placed to benefit for the development of tidal lagoons to the west and the east of the city and the harnessing of some of the tide energy potential of the Severn estuary - with a combination of tidal turbines, waves power, off shore wind, and an Usk river barrage to harness our rivers energy potential and to focus redevelopment on our city’s river.

The concept of Green Jobs and the economic contribution that they can make to our communities and to the Welsh economy is now well recognised by most people. Our coastline and our maritime and energy resources will remain a largely untapped resource for the foreseeable future.  The prototype tidal lagoon should have been a first step towards making Wales a world leader in a new and innovative technology with the potential to power our future. 

The ongoing failure to start work on the Swansea Tidal lagoon is a perfect demonstration of why Wales needs to gain greater control over its own future. We can no longer not afford the luxury of Westminster continuing to hold back our country’s potential for developing renewable sustainable energy sector and the related skills that could make Wales a world leader. 

Westminster has consistently denied fair funding and the tools (the powers) to reshape and reboot our economy, which would have enabled a government in Cardiff to invest to create well-paid jobs in Wales. Renewable energy development (and green collar jobs that should come with it) has the  potential to create renewable and sustainable non nuclear energy supply, which can bootstrap our economy, cut carbon emissions and also development energy supplies  that are not dependent on imported oil and gas from the unstable Middle East and the Persian gulf and Russia.

We have a double problem, firstly we have a Labour dominated national assembly that’s benefit of ambition, ideas and the tools to do the job, and secondly Westminster is just simply not interested in making Wales thrive, or allowing Wales to acquire the powers that could make Wales a world-leader in the development of renewable energy technologies and also to generate the technologies and jobs that go with it. If we can do this then we can have a New Newport and a New Wales. 

PLAID'S MANIFESTO FOR WESTMINSTER 2019

Plaid Cymru's passionate, detailed and ambitious manifesto was launched at Coleg y Cymoedd in Nantgarw on Friday (22nd November 2019). 

The Party of Wales will enter this election with one purpose; to build a better future for Wales. 

We want to see a Wales that is just, safe, equal, open, and above all sustainable. 

Plaid Cymru is ready to make the 2020s a decade of three zeroes; 0 carbon, 0 waste, and 0 poverty. Our five key priorities are:

1) A WELSH GREEN JOBS REVOLUTION

We will create tens of thousands of new jobs throughout Wales by kick-starting a multi-billion investment programme in renewable energy, transport infrastructure and digital technology, with the goal of making Wales a carbon and single-use plastic free nation by 2030.

2) CARING FOR EVERYONE

We will guarantee free social care for the elderly and other vulnerable citizens through a new National Health and Social Care Service, with an additional 1000 new doctors, 5000 new nurses, and 100 new NHS dentists offering seamless access to health care for everyone throughout Wales.

3) A FAIR DEAL FOR FAMILIES

We will introduce universal free childcare for 40 hours a week, and a new £35 a week payment for every child in low income families, lifting 50,000 children in Wales out of poverty, plus £300 million extra for schools and colleges to give our children the best start in life.

4) ACTION ON HOUSING

We will make major investment in environmentally sustainable affordable homes and bring in rent relief for people who pay more than 30% of their income on rent.

5) COMBATING CRIME

We will create a Welsh justice system, devolve policing and create a new crime prevention fund to recruit 1600 extra police officers, that being at least 2 for every community in Wales, to keep us safe.

Plaid Cymru is serious about the climate crisis. 

Plaid Cymru is serious about people's wellbeing. 

Plaid Cymru is serious about our children's future. 

Plaid Cymru is serious about the housing crisis. 

Plaid Cymru is serious about crime.

Are you?

Wales; it's us.

Vote for the Party of Wales on December 12th.

A NEXT STEP?

Almost half a year ago the First Minister made the right choice about the M4 Relief road. I have been opposed to the project since the 1990's. It's been dropped more times over the years than a questionable county striker. Whats important now - is what happens next to alleviate the traffic problems that regularly clog up our city - the M4 Relief road would have done little to resolve them - despite the promises. If we are serious about giving people a realistic alternative to the car in and around Newport (and elsewhere) then we need decent integrated reliable public transport - without that nothing is going to change. 

Driver training on the Gaer spur (Ian Brewer)

What happens next is now of real significance - there are some small significant and long overdue projects - which would be big wins by way of infrastructure in Newport which should have been completed decades ago. A prime example is that of the proposed re-opening of the railway station at Caerleon - this has been in the structure plan since 1986 - but nothing has been done. Not to mention railway stations at Llanwern and Magor - approved in principle but with no ground broken as the years continue to pass. There are sone relatively simple potentially significant easy wins - which could have a big impact on the congestion problem in and around Newport and on the coastal plain. We need railway stations, with decent facilities and significant park and ride (with sensible walk to routes) at:

• Caerleon / Ponthir , 
• Magor, and 
• Llanwern 

Across the south east, we can start with the Ebbw vale link to Newport needs to be re-timetabled and the line extended to Aberbeeg (as originally promised). Trains already periodically run on this line into Newport - when maintenance is under taken elsewhere. This reinstated service would enable connecting services to be run into Newport - giving commuters to Bristol and further afield an alternative means of getting to and from their places of work. 

Within Newport there is a need to develop a decent system of public transport - based around a light rail / tram network which connects Bettws / Malpas, Duffryn and Pill and Alway / Ringland with the city centre and the railway station(s). At present the residents of Bettws, Pill, Duffryn and Alway / Ringland have no alternative but to drive, use the much reduced bus service or walk. Trams are not a pipe dream they are already an important part of integrated public transport systems in Merton (in south west London), Sheffield, Manchester and elsewhere. They would work equally well in Newport, Cardiff and Swansea and feed people into our main line railway stations. 

Elsewhere in the former county of Gwent there is much work that needs to be done. Our railway stations at Abergavenny, Pontypwl and Cwmbran, Caldicot , Severn Tunnel and Chepstow have all seen some degree of improvement but are barely fit for service. All these stations need improvement and need more stopping services and better facilities hand in hand with the development of secure reasonably priced park and ride facilities. There should be a feasibility study into reopening the branch line to Usk (with a station sited West of the River Usk (with decent park and ride facilities). Along with this there is a case for a park and ride railway station at Little Mill (especially with the proposed hoisting development at Mamihiiad). With all of this we need integrated ticketing - with one ticket coverage all modes of transport - it either well elsewhere in these islands - so why not here? 

The National Assembly also needs to work systematically and over the long term to get long distance freight traffic off our roads and back onto our railways. If you are shipping a container from Neath or Newport to Nuneaton or Namur it needs to be on a train not trundling around the motorway network. Successive Scottish government have had done success with encouraging and incentivising the movement of freight from road back to rail. Hand in hand with this initiative there is a real need to fundamentally change the delivery cycle from last minute to more planned delivery cycle. 

We need workable medium term solutions that will fundamentally impact on our options for moving about our city, the SE and the rest of Wales. What we don't need now is inaction, we gave had plenty of that, combined with poor if not down right bad decision making on the part if government at all levels, be it Westminster, National Assembly and local level - the consequences of which we are all living with every day in the south east and across the rest of Cymru / Wales. The time for excuses us past - what's needed now is action on the ground to begin to sort out our congestion problems and to provide us with decent integrated transport that's fit for the 21st century rather the 20th.

A QUESTION OF NUMBERS...

One of Boris’s promises to the electorate (repeated in a recent letter to Newport West residents) is that a Conservative government would increase the number of police officers in Wales and England by 20,000. 

While many of our hard pressed communities would happily welcome any increase the number of Police officers, in the face of rising crime following period when there has been a persistent thinning of police numbers.

It is perhaps worth remembering that we are some 19,704 police officers in Wales and England down since the Tories (and their eager Liberal Democrat’s coat holders) took office in 2010. 

Perhaps Teresa May, the former Prime Minster and former Home Secretary, was too busy creating hostile climate, to actually oversea the ill thought out reduction in Police numbers. 

It’s also worth noting that these figures apply to Wales and England only, as the Scottish police force has been exempt from Tory cuts due to the fact that control of policing is devolved to Scotland, unlike in Cymru / Wales.

Devolving policing powers would increase the accountability of the Welsh Government; strengthen the democratic process by allowing decisions, which directly impact on the Welsh people to be made, reviewed, revised and changed here in Wales. 

At the end of the day, the Welsh people have a simple democratic right to have a greater say in something so fundamental to civilised community life as policing. This is already the case in Scotland, Northern Ireland, London and Manchester. 

Policing is only one side of the coin, to make devolved policing work, there is also a need to devolve control of criminal justice. I have been long convinced that now is the time is right to devolve policing powers to the Welsh Government in Cardiff. 

Fundamentally policing decisions in Wales need to reflect the needs and concerns of our communities, not simply the on-going cost cutting agenda driven by previous Conservative Prime Minister’s (and a former Home Secretary) and the Ministry of Criminal Justice in London. 

Plaid Cymru has long campaigned rightly to “stop the thin blue line from breaking” and to boost funding for the Welsh police forces. 

The full devolution of policing would have meant the Welsh police forces would have been exempt from the Tories’ planned £32 million cut to their budgets and would have benefitted from an additional £25 million through being funded through the Barnett formula meaning a total difference in Welsh police budgets of £57 million between Plaid Cymru and Conservative policy. 

Back in 2017 Plaid Cymru called a vote on devolving policing during the passing of the Wales Bill through the Houses of Parliament. 

We should remember that given the choice of devolving Policing to Wales, the Conservatives voted it down and the Labour Party abstained - so much for standing up for Wales.

JONATHAN T CLARK FOR NEWPORT WEST

Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales, has confirmed Jonathan T Clark as its candidate for the Newport West constituency for the forthcoming Westminster Parliamentary Elections.  

Jonathan  T Clark said:

"I am pleased to have been re-selected to contest Newport West constituency at the Westminster Parliamentary Elections. For far too long the people of Newport West have suffered from the fact that whoever is in power in Westminster, or Cardiff Bay, they all of whom have failed to consider the economic and social needs of the people of this constituency.“

He said:

“The people of Newport West need an MP who will actually put the real concerns of the electors of Newport to the forefront rather than party interests. Wales needs more Plaid MPs in Westminster to work with the Plaid AMs in Cardiff to deliver for the people of Wales. The only way to get a government that will always put Wales at the centre of its policies is to vote Plaid Cymru at the next Westminster Parliamentary Elections".

Jonathan continued:

‘We still need to take No Deal of the table. A realistic deal needs good will on both sides. The alarming combination of half-threat, half-promise approach to the Brexit negotiations still remains shocking.  We will soon be nearly three years and a half years down the line and appear no closer to deciding on the detail of what we want or how to get it - an extension to the process would be a good place to start - so we don’t end up with a disastrous damaging no deal.’

He concluded:

“I would hope to bring a combination of curiosity, stubbornness, tenacity and a real desire to seek the truth combined the skills acquired working as a journalist, in public relations for the police, in public sector education and recruitment. I have the ability to seek the truth and an understanding as to where it can be concealed which would be useful while working as a parliamentary representative in Westminster.”

DIWEDD / ENDS

Notes to Editors

Candidates Biography:

Jonathan T Clark, is married and lives in Newport, the city of his birth. Born (in 1966) and brought up in Newport and educated at St Julian’s Comprehensive School, Newport, the University of Wales, Lampeter (BA (Hons) History), the University of Wales, Newport (MA Celto-Roman Studies) and an MPhil in Roman Archaeology from Cardiff University.

Jonathan has been actively involved in every Plaid campaign in South East Wales since 1998, he is prospective parliamentary candidate for Newport West. He was the Plaid candidate in the recent Newport West by-election in April 2019 and previously contested Monmouth constituency in the Westminster Elections (2005, 2010 and 2015), the National Assembly Election's (2007 and 2016) and was on Plaid's SE Regional List (2011 and 2016).

Jonathan has a passing interest in the consequences of peak everything and is interested in social justice, the growing problem of affords housing, energy independence, land tenure, public access, policing, equal pay, integrated public transport, our economy and the consequences of the former war on terror and enduring threats to civil liberties. He is a keen hill walker and longtime supporter of Newport County Football Club (since 1978/79), The Newport Gwent Dragons and has a keen interest in archaeology, politics and history. 

Since 2016, Jonathan works in recruitment in Cardiff, previously working in Marketing and IT at the former University of Newport (from 1998 until 2015) before its demise.  Before that he worked for the Metropolitan Police Service press office - the Directorate of Public Affairs and Internal Communication, living and working in London between 1990 and 1998. He worked as a trainee journalist at the Pontypool Free Press before moving to London for work.