THE URBAN SPONGE

We need to build into our communities the resilience to cope with flooding - sadly in a warmer wetter world - flood events are going to become more common - we need to think and act smarter, with shifting the focus from flood prevention to flood avoidance. Our communities, our nation and our world are becoming more prone to extreme weather, torrential downpours and periods of warmer or hit dry weather. 

Dealing with the consequences of this on a marco level is one thing.  Small relatively simple steps to store water for later use, with water butts (if only to water garden plants and vegetables) can make a very practical if minor use of excessive rainfall and runoff if only very locally.  Aside from helping to save water and to cut water bills.

Local water storage and management is increasingly part of intelligent urban design, something that is becoming more common and necessary in a warmer wetter world.  On a larger scale this is something we will all have to do, naturally some people and nations are a head of the curve when it comes to re-engineering their infrastructures to deal with extreme weather events. 

The concept of the sponge city or urban sponge. something that is embedded and central to urban planning should now be coming into its own, particularly in Wales, with our urban areas being redesigned or designed from the start to soak up, and store deluges of torrential rain to prevent damaging and dangerous flash flooding but without the construction of large scale flood defences.  

The Dutch, for historical and geographical reasons have been involved in serious water management for centuries. Yet in a warmed world, even the Dutch are having to take long hard fresh look at how they deal with the consequences or severe weather and more regular flooding. 

Many urban areas have developed with any serious co side ration of the impact of flash flooding - back in July, in localised parts of London heavy torrential downpours saw local drainage systems overwhelmed - as streets became rivers, homes and businesses were flooded and public transport ( including trains and tubes ) brought to a standstill. In London, heavy rain, which fell on hard surfaces, overloaded drainage and severe flooding resulted. 

Elsewhere things are done differently - the songs city concept has been embraced in parts of Berlin, were green roofs have been created with living plants, mosses and grasses, with plants Boeing on vertical walls, with courtyards planted with vegetation, etc - all of which helps to hold and slow excessive water. One beneficial side effect, if that the retained water helps to cool local neighbourhoods as the water evaporates from vegetation and the ground. 

In the Netherlands, the concept of making room for the river has been embraced to give space for flooding, something which slows the speed of riverine flooding. In Amsterdam, they have constructed rain gardens which have been created from parking areas, which are designed to collect water, people have also been encouraged to remove paving from their gardens, to grow plants and to build ponds to help with runoff and water storage. 

In the city of Rotterdam, public places have been turned into what are called water plazas which turn into shallow lakes during periods of heavy rain, when times are drier these locations are used as public parks and playing fields. Underground car parks have been redesigned or specifically built so that lower levels can be used to store storm related flood waters - which can then be pumped dry when water levels have dropped. 

These concepts are only slowly being looked at a adopted within these islands, we still tend to defy logic and build on flood planes, but, tend not to harden infrastructure of buildings ( commercial and domestic ) or to build with flooding in mind  e.g. build smart using ground floors for storage or parking and raise plug and power points, protect utilities and drains, and put washing machines, fridges sand freezers up off the ground. 

Some urban areas, within these islands, have slowly begun to adopt the concept, there are examples in Llanelli and at West Gordon Park, near Manchester - were porous pavements, shallow depressions, grass berms and small ponds help to absorb and direct surplus water into rain gardens or natural sumps or green spaces that double up as parks in drier periods. 

These are small steps, in a warmer, wetter world with more erratic and extreme weather events the problem of flooding will only get worse. As homeowners pave over their gardens for parking spaces the problem will worsen. The concept of the urban sponge is one that we all need to embrace, along with smart design and smart water management to help to reduce or alleviate urban flooding. 

6 reasons to vote Jonathan T Clark in Newport West

Jonathan T Clark’s six pledges to the people of Newport West: 

We need affordable homes prioritised for local residents and we need to  end street homelessness.  

Our country lacks, a serious well thought out integrated housing structure plan, a modern planning system and a realistic vision or plan for strategically developing our housing for the future and we need to develop a sustainable protected green belt for Newport and Wales. 

We need a public transport revolution for Newport, the metro must deliver - saving our environment, our time and money. We need a new railway station for Caerleon / Ponthir and an hourly rail service from Ebbw Vale and Rogerstone into Newport.

Newport must be at the forefront of the green energy revolution - with our deep-water port, our highly skilled adaptable workforce, we are a natural centre for off-shore wind, tidal lagoons, tidal turbines and an Usk river barrage

Newport has suffered because of the obsession with directly competing with Cardiff and Cribs Causeway. We need to focus on growing small local businesses that supply our needs as well as hosting the usual suspects to bring economic life back to our city centre.

The proposed Cardiff City region and the Western Gateway project will not serve Newport well. I will ensure that Newport has a strong voice in the Senedd, I will work hard to put the interests of Newport, rather than party interests, first. 

6 reasons to vote Daniel Llewellyn in Newport East

Daniel Llewellyn’s six pledges to the people of Newport East: 

We need affordable homes prioritised for local residents, We need to end street homelessness and we need to develop a sustainable protected green belt for Newport and Wales.

Wales’s lacks, a serious well thought out integrated housing structure plan, a modern planning system and a realistic vision or plan for strategically developing our housing for the future. I will fight to help establish protected green belt land around our urban areas.

Newport must be at the forefront of the green energy revolution - with our deepwater port, our highly skilled adaptable workforce, we are a natural centre for offshore wind, tidal lagoons, tidal turbines and an Usk river barrage

We need a public transport revolution for Newport, the metro must deliver and quickly - saving our environment, our time and money.  We need new stations at Somerton, Llanwern and Magor and we need them urgently.

Newport has suffered because of the obsession with directly competing with Cardiff and Cribs Causeway. We need to focus on growing small local businesses that supply our needs as well as hosting the usual suspects to bring economic life back to our city centre.

The proposed Cardiff City region and the Western Gateway project will not serve Newport well. I will ensure that Newport has a strong voice in the Senedd, I will work hard to put the interests of Newport, rather than party interests, first. 

A NEW AUTISM ACT

Leanne Wood, Plaid Cymru MS for the Rhondda has today outlined her party’s pledge to introduce an Autism Act should they form the next Welsh Government in May.

Leanne Wood recalled the “widespread anger and disappointment” when Labour voted against an Autism Bill in the Senedd back in 2019, vowing that a Plaid Cymru government make up for this “missed opportunity.”

On World Autism Awareness Day, the Plaid Cymru candidate for the Rhondda added that her party’s Autism Act would “adopt a rights-based approach for people with autism” to support families and the thousands of individuals who are either struggling to get a diagnosis or support afterwards. 

Dr John Gillibrand is an author and long term campaigner, raising awareness about autism, and has welcomed the news that a Plaid Cymru government would introduce an Autism Act. Dr Gillibrand’s son was diagnosed with autism in childhood, and says that people “can’t take for granted that support will be equal across Wales” without embedding statutory responsibility. 

Leanne Wood MS said:

“There was widespread anger and disappointment when the vast majority of Labour Members voted against an Autism Bill in the Senedd in 2019.

“A Plaid Cymru Government would make up for this missed opportunity by bringing forward an Autism Act that would adopt a rights-based approach for people with autism and those suspected of having autism but are yet to receive a diagnosis.

“When the Autism Bill was voted down by Labour, I clearly recall the distressing evidence we received from individuals with autism and their families. They spoke movingly of the challenges they faced in getting support after diagnosis and in many cases the struggle of getting a diagnosis in the first place.

“Their stories showed that there is a desperate need for such legislation. Those stories are still being told – the difference is that a Plaid Cymru government would be willing to listen. 

“There are around 34,000 autistic people in Wales who need and deserve far greater consistency nationwide in terms of the provision of support and services available to them.

“A Plaid Cymru government would bring forward the Autism Act to help these thousands of people and to deliver where Labour have failed.”

Dr Gillibrand said:

“I welcome the news that a Plaid Cymru government would bring back the Autism Act, as I was bitterly disappointed when this was voted down in the Senedd in 2019. 

“I understand the difference that the right support at the right time can make to people diagnosed with autism and their families. It’s vital that this is embedded into legislation, rather than leaving such important matters to local discretion. 

“People can’t take for granted that support will be equal across Wales unless this is made a statutory requirement.”

ENDS

THE VIEW FROM THE EDGE

The view from the periphery, or the edge often largely depends on where you stand and how you look at the map, a change of economic focus in Wales is long overdue, perhaps ironically where ever we end up post Brexit may well finally compel us to think and act differently.  

It is clear we cannot go on as we have, our country is literally littered with the tombstone like remnants of failed models of economic development. Most of them having failed to deliver long-term economic benefits and more than a few long-term jobs to our people and our communities.

What is badly needed is the courage to step away from the over centralised state agency dependent model of economic development as applied by successive Westminster and Welsh governments. Successive  Westminster Governments have consistently failed to deliver beyond the short-term for Wales. 

With the crutch of EU regional funding about to be kicked firmly away, despite the weak and wobbly promises from Westminster to the contrary, we in Wales find ourselves desperately needing some fresh economic thinking and action rather than more words.

The older economic models which reduce Cymru / Wales to simply a region (or more ominously simply  the peripheral part of larger cross border regions) where we have provided relatively cheap labour with industries that were heavily dependent on grants for funding just won’t wash or work anymore. 

We need to find other economic models that can deliver long-term jobs and lasting material benefits to our communities and to our country. 

We have been historically over dependent on Westminster or the old Welsh Office or Cardiff Bay waving their magic wand to solve our economic problems, this is entirely understandable considering the nature of our economic and political history, but this simply compounds the error and just won’t solve our economic problems or create sustainable jobs. 

The days of bringing in significant amounts of ‘inward investment’ are over, Westminster has better things to spend its money on in England - Cymru / Wales does not matter electorally (or economically) as far as the Conservatives are concerned. 

Post the CORONA virus and Post BREXIT it’s time to be honest to ourselves and admit that ‘The Union’ as it has been, even with devolution has failed to deliver for Wales. As far as it is concerned the current Labour in Wales government is fresh out of ideas, unless compared to the current Conservative Westminster government. 

We desperately need indigenous home grown businesses (small, medium and larger scale) which will put down roots and stick around when economic times are tough rather than pulling up sticks and bugging out when the grant money runs out and be more able to resist being hovered up by multi nationals. 

We need to develop small to medium sized enterprises or local co-operative industries that could provide medium to long-term sustainable job opportunities and an economy where they can thrive.

Part of the economic mix should include developing and encouraging the co-operative model of economic development. The co-operative model works well in a number of countries including both Ireland and in the Basque country, there is no reason why it should not work well here. 

The Basque cooperative model, as personified by Mondragon co-operative suggests what can be accomplished. If we are to grow local businesses and local jobs we are going to have to create a real Bank of Wales, perhaps using the German Sparkasse and Landesbanken model. 

For too long far too many small and medium sized businesses in our country have been denied access to credit by banks and this has prevented the growth of our private sector.

Our over centralised dividend driven pretty much rootless London based banking model that has been followed in the UK is incapable, indifferent or simply unwilling to deliver or support economic development in our country. 

In Germany, the Sparkasse and Landesbanken operate on a geographical basis, and have developed special expertise in the local industries so that they are better equipped to make investment decisions and should offer a real alternative.

Mondragon a collective of over 264 companies and organisations mostly based in the Basque Country has proven to be one of the more resilient economic success stories in recession-hit Spain. It has a revenue of 12,215 million euros, with 81,837 employees with 15 technology centres in 41 countries and sales in over 150 countries. 

The Basque co-operative may well be the world's largest worker co-operative, it has certainly assisted the Basque economy to try and resist the worst ravages of the recession in Spain. The company was established in 1956, in the province of Gipuzkoa; with a business philosophy built around co-operation, participation, social responsibility and innovation. 

It began small (this may very well be the key to its success) and form the bottom up with a group of workers in a disused factory, literally using hand tools and sheet metal to make oil-fired heating and cooking stoves.

The Cooperative continues to compete on international markets using democratic methods within its business organisation, helps to create jobs, and is committed to the human and professional development of its workers and pledges to development with its social environment. 

Some parts of the co-operative are wholly owned, others are run as joint venture operations. 

Co-operative members as equal co-owners of their own workplaces enjoy job security and individual capital holdings, with an equal sharing of profits on a proportionate basis and an equal ‘one-member one vote’ say in the way their enterprises are run. 

Pay within the cooperatives is strictly egalitarian, with the highest rates payable other than in exceptional circumstances being refreshingly no more than six and a half times the lowest rate. 

The Basque country has Spain’s highest GDP per capita, its richer than even Catalonia and Wales is the poorest nation in the British Isles, and in northwestern Europe. 

We in Wales have much to learn from the example of Mondragon and its methods when it comes generating and retaining sustainable jobs, simply remaining poor (or increasingly poorer) west Britons is not an option. 

There is no reason why the co-operative approach combined with a rich mix of small to medium sized enterprises cannot be used to bring in a community focused upward economic slow burn approach to economic development.

We desperately need something that will not just provide local jobs but real community beneficial sustainable developments which can transform our communities and fundamentally boost our country’s economic potential. 

Perhaps we can take that first important step in May 2021 at the Senedd elections and put the firmly past behind us.

FOCUSING ON FLOOD AVOIDANCE

We need to build into our communities the resilience to cope with flooding - sadly in a warmer wetter world - flood events are going to become more common. Over the weekend some 27 flood warnings were issued for Wales. Over the last five years the Welsh Government has invested more than £390 million to manage flood risk. The  severity and frequency of flooding events means that flood prevention needs to become a strategic national priority.

Both the Welsh and Westminster Governments need to make rational long term sustainable choices when it comes to flood defence. We in Wales need to develop a comprehensive planning system for our country that hardens our communities and infrastructure against the effects of severe weather events.   We need to focus on flood prevention and develop flood preventative schemes rather than end up clearing up after the flood is over again and again.

As our winters and our summers become warmer and wetter we will see more instances sea and riverine flooding, persistent bad weather has meant that some of our communities have had some pretty close calls and other communities have been badly inundated (again). There can be no blank cheque for flood defences so we need to make rational cost effective sustainable choices when it comes to flood defence whether for coastal or riverine flooding on the Gwent levels or the Ebbw, Wye, Usk or Monnow valleys. 

The debate taking place around flooding needs to focus on re-engineering the whole water system in Wales to ensure that water is retained in the uplands to prevent downstream flooding. Here in Wales, those agencies responsible for our environment need to take the lead and work to ensure that potential flood waters are retained our uplands for longer and flood prevention avoidance schemes are comprehensively built into our planning system.

A close call near Caerleon, near Newport in the lower Usk Valley in 2016

Where possible we should avoid building in those areas that are particularly vulnerable to flooding or at least when building to take into account the possibilities of flooding. If we are going to build on flood plains or other areas that are vulnerable to flooding then we must use flood resistant or at the very least flood hardened modern intelligent design techniques to limit potential damage, loss and inconvenience as are used elsewhere. The on-going Dutch programme - Room for the River shows what’s possible.

We can be constructively innovative when we want to - the Welsh Government had previously given “indicative approval” to the Upper Conwy project. The purpose of the project is to assist in the storage of flood waters in the upland by slowing water flows through the restoration of moors, and it includes ditch blocking and river restoration. The cooperative project is spearheaded by Natural Resources Wales and the National Trust, with an agency official seconded to the Trust to push the work forward. Similar schemes have been developed in the north of England - this is good practice and we need much more of this. 

A NEED FOR GREEN BELT

The explosion in housing and commercial developments around our cities, small towns and villages across Cymru / Wales over the last 40 years - often with little provision for public transport or alternative ways for potential residents to get around beyond using their cars - has flagged up the rapid loss of green spaces in and around our urban and not so urban areas. 

One thing our country lacks, aside from a serious well though out integrated housing structure plan, and a modern planning system and a realistic vision or plan for strategically developing our housing for the future, is green belt. 

There is a clear need for formal legally protected green belt, around Cardiff (including the Northern meadows), Newport, Cwmbran and Caerphilly along with our small towns in Monmouthshire: Abergavenny, Chepstow and Monmouth and elsewhere in Cymru / Wales.

We have a clear, if not a dire need for the creation of Green belt across all of our country, to fringe our urban areas, to help focus out of town and fringe of town developments, and to protect green spaces around, between and within some of our urban areas. 

Green belt, if respected is still a useful planning tool, originally introduced for London in 1938, it was rolled out to England as a whole by a government circular in 1955 but interestingly enough it was only enough never rolled out here in Cymru / Wales.

Now the original concept was to allow local councils to designate green belts when they wanted to restrict, control or shape urban growth.  

The idea worked and it worked well, as by 2007, Green belt covered something like 13% of England (about one-and-a-half million hectares) despite the best efforts of previous Conservative, New Labour and Conservative–Liberal Democrat Governments it is still remains relatively well protected by normal planning controls against "inappropriate development".

It is worth noting that there is no designated green belt in Cymru / Wales - save for one patch of notional green belt (actually a Green wedge) that lies between Cardiff and Newport. Scotland has seven and Northern Ireland has thirty - each has its own policy guidance. 

This absence of green belt in Cymru / Wales explains much - it has certainly contributed to urban sprawl and significant out of town and edge of town development - something that has done little to help our communities, economically or socially especially over the last 30 years.

The preservation of green spaces aside, comes down to planning permission (and ultimately our planning process), which can be a touchy subject in itself, especially when a development (whether for commercial, housing or energy development) is controversial or the final decision is made against the wishes of local people. 

In Cymru / Wales we face the same problem across all of our country, be it around Wrecsam, Carmarthen, northern Cardiff, Swansea of any of our smaller towns and villages. 

A familiar site on our green spaces...

More locally, a number of these housing developments, which have done (and will do) some pretty serious damage to our environment have come without any necessary improvements in infrastructure e.g new railway stations with reasonably priced (or even free), adequate and secure park and ride facilities at Caerleon (closed as a result of the Beeching cuts in 1962, in the UDP since 1984) not to mention Llanwern and Magor.

In our south east, along the coastal belt and in and around Newport and Torfaen (not to mention around Cardiff and Caerphilly) and across Monmouthshire the last thirty years has seen a significant if not spectacular growth in the amount of housing, a significant percentage of which has never aimed to fulfil local housing needs. 

As a result the infrastructure along the coastal belt between Chepstow, Caldicot, Rogiet and Magor struggles to cope with existing developments and this is well before the projected expansion of housing on and around the former Llanwern site (where the proposed railway station was recently cancelled) really kicks in.

Northern Newport has been linked to the south Cwmbran - something that has brought little material benefit to the residents of either urban area but has contributed much to traffic congestion. 

Similarly linking Cwmbran with Sebastopol will bring scant real benefit to local residents - when the housing development is complete - just exactly how much of it will be affordable to local residents remains to be seen?

The removal of the Severn Bridge tolls resulted (as expected) in a bump in house prices as people living in and around Bristol moved to cash in on cheaper housing over here.  

This understandably impacted on both affordable and available housing, developers will no doubt pitch their developments accordingly to cash in on perceived higher wages in the Bristol area and perceived cheaper housing over here (and no doubt our local authorities will fall over themselves to accommodate the developers wishes regardless how local people feel).

The, then, National Assembly (now Senedd)  should have known better and acted accordingly, the institution when established was supposed to have sustainability enshrined in its actions, but, at times you really have to wonder, especially when it comes to the impact of some of the proposed developments on our communities, whether it does or not. 

We need to develop and protect our own green belt around and within our urban communities – because once developed (or overdeveloped) it’s gone for good. We need to bin the fundamentally flawed UDP process and make our local government structure fit for the 21st century rather than the 19th century and accommodate re realities of devolved government. 

It should be pretty clear by now to even the most dispassionate of observers that in Wales, we lack a coherent national strategic development plan for Wales judging by the half-baked way local unitary development plans have been put together over the years.

The problem caused by a lack of protection to our Green spaces is aggravated by the fact that while one generation of elected officials (and council officers) envisages as a green wedge, green lane, etc as a social necessity they are often seen by following generations of elected officials (and council officers) as either prime land for development or a nice little earner to help balance out the books.

This means that there is a real lack of stability and a lack of a sustainable long term vision for many of our urban areas and impacts on our quality of life. 

The Senedd needs to grow up and act like the Welsh Parliament it has become - it should take the long view and legislate to create and protect Green belt land with full legal and planning protections in Cymru/ Wales. 

This might go some way to calming things down when it comes to development planning and might introduce a more long-term sustainable democratic element into the process. 

This is something that could be accomplished by creating Welsh Green belt land, as part of the process we also need an urgent and open debate into the planning process in Wales - something that has been long overdue.

Successive Westminster government’s (in England) talked about getting planning officers "off people's backs" with a relaxation of planning rules. 

When they talked about ‘people’ they meant developers. 

No doubt post Brexit Westminster ministers will want further changes to planning rules (in England) in an attempt to boost house building and revive the economy.

Not wanting to be left out (and also perhaps bereft of any fresh ideas), a few years ago Carwyn’s Labour in Wales Government in Cardiff also pursued major changes to planning rules in Wales aiming to ‘tilt the balance in favour of economic growth over the environment and social factors’. 

That decision was in my opinion aimed quite specifically at overturning those few occasions when our Local Authorities have rejected developments (often at the behest of local residents) rather than putting economic needs ahead of economic and environmental benefits and will do little for sustainable, flood free development to deal with local housing needs let alone preserve our green spaces. 

It explains much of the housing overdevelopment in various parts of our country and it does not deliver for our hard pressed communities or our country. 

We need to look at championing the development of new homes in small-scale housing developments in both rural and urban Wales on ‘exception sites’, where land plots, not covered by general planning permission, will be capped at an affordable price designed to benefit those in local housing need with family and work ties to the area, and whose sale will be conditional on these houses continuing in local ownership in perpetuity. 

What’s left of our social housing stock that remains under the control of the housing associations needs to remain intact in order to meet the demand for homes. 

Along with developing social housing stock there is a need to introduce a more rigorous system in the allocation of social housing to give priority to those in local housing need.

Part of the problem is that our planning system, along with our almost nineteenth century local government setup is not designed to coexist with devolution or for that matter to deliver planning decisions with real and lasting benefits for local people and local communities. 

There is a real need for root and branch reform and reorganisation of our planning system; something the Welsh Government has failed to deliver with tinkering and tweaks to existing out-dated legislation rather than and real reform.

Our current planning system remains far too focused on railroading through large housing / commercial developments, that often bring little benefits for local people and local communities and often fail to resolve real and pressing local housing needs. 

We need a fundamental change in planning culture to encourage appropriate and sustainable smaller scale housing developments, which are based on good design and actively promote energy efficiency and good environmental standards and that puts our communities first. 

This is something we are never going to get from a Labour in Wales government, it’s time to change Cymru / Wales, with a Plaid Cymru government in 2021, for unlike Labour, Plaid actually believes that Wales can. 

BUILDING WALES BETTER?

From the periphery, which often largely depends on where you stand and how you look at the map, a change of economic focus in Wales is long overdue, perhaps ironically where ever we end up post Brexit may well compel us to think and act differently.  

It is clear we cannot go on as we have, our country is literally littered with the tombstone like remnants of failed models of economic development. Most of them having failed to deliver long-term economic benefits and more than a few long-term jobs to our people and our communities.

What is badly needed is the courage to step away from the over centralised state dependent model of economic development as applied by successive Westminster and Welsh governments. Successive  Westminster Governments have consistently failed to deliver beyond the short-term for Wales. 

With the crutch of EU regional funding about to be kicked away, despite some weak and wobbly promises from Westminster to the contrary, we desperately need some fresh economic thinking and action rather than more words.

The older economic models which reduce Cymru / Wales to simply a region (of part of larger cross border regions) where we provide relatively cheap labour with industries that a heavily dependent on grants for funding just won’t wash anymore. 

We need to find other economic models that can deliver long-term jobs and lasting material benefits to our communities and to our country. 

We have been historically over dependent on Westminster or Cardiff Bay waving their magic wand to solve our economic problems, this is entirely understandable considering the nature of our economic and political history, but this simply compounds the error and won’t solve our economic problems or create sustainable jobs. 

The days of bringing in significant amounts of ‘inward investment’ are probably over, Westminster has better things to spend its money on - Cymru / Wales does not matter electorally (or economically) as far as the Conservatives are concerned. 

Post the CORONA virus and Post BREXIT its time to be honest and admit that ‘The Union’ as it has been, even with devolution has failed to deliver for Wales. As far as it is concerned the current Welsh Labour government remains fresh out of ideas, unless compared to the current Conservative Westminster government. 

We desperately need indigenous home grown businesses (small, medium and larger scale) which will put down roots and stick around when economic times are tough rather than pulling up sticks and bugging out when the grant money runs out and be more able to resist being hovered up by multi nationals. 

We need to develop small to medium sized enterprises or local co-operative industries that could provide medium to long-term sustainable job opportunities.

Part of the economic mix should include developing and encouraging the co-operative model of economic development. The co-operative model works well in a number of countries including both Ireland and in the Basque country, there is no reason why it should not work well here. 

The Basque cooperative model, as personified by Mondragon co-operative suggests what can be accomplished. If we are to grow local businesses and local jobs we are going to have to create a real Bank of Wales, perhaps using the German Sparkasse and Landesbanken model. 

For too long far too many small and medium sized businesses in our country have been denied credit by banks and this has prevented the growth of our private sector.

Our over centralised dividend driven pretty much rootless London based banking model that has been followed in the UK is incapable, indifferent or simply unwilling to deliver or support economic development in our country. 

In Germany, the Sparkasse and Landesbanken operate on a geographical basis, and have developed special expertise in the local industries so that they are better equipped to make investment decisions and should offer a real alternative.

Mondragon a collective of over 264 companies and organisations mostly based in the Basque Country has proven to be one of the more resilient economic success stories in recession-hit Spain. It has a revenue of 12,215 million euros, with 81,837 employees with 15 technology centres in 41 countries and sales in over 150 countries. 

The Basque co-operative may well be the world's largest worker co-operative, it has certainly assisted the Basque economy to try and resist the worst ravages of the recession in Spain. The company was established in 1956, in the province of Gipuzkoa; with a business philosophy built around co-operation, participation, social responsibility and innovation. 

It began small (this may very well be the key to its success) and form the bottom up with a group of workers in a disused factory, literally using hand tools and sheet metal to make oil-fired heating and cooking stoves.

The Cooperative continues to compete on international markets using democratic methods within its business organisation, helps to create jobs, and is committed to the human and professional development of its workers and pledges to development with its social environment. 

Some parts of the co-operative are wholly owned, others are run as joint venture operations. 

Co-operative members as equal co-owners of their own workplaces enjoy job security and individual capital holdings, with an equal sharing of profits on a proportionate basis and an equal ‘one-member one vote’ say in the way their enterprises are run. 

Pay within the cooperatives is strictly egalitarian, with the highest rates payable other than in exceptional circumstances being refreshingly no more than six and a half times the lowest rate. 

The Basque country has Spain’s highest GDP per capita, its richer than even Catalonia and Wales is the poorest nation in the British Isles, and in northwestern Europe. 

We in Wales have much to learn from the example of Mondragon and its methods when it comes generating and retaining sustainable jobs, simply remaining poor (or increasingly poorer) west Britons is not an option. 

There is no reason why the co-operative approach combined with a rich mix of small to medium sized enterprises cannot be used to bring in a community focused upward economic slow burn approach to economic development.

We desperately need something that will not just provide local jobs but real community beneficial sustainable developments which can transform our communities and fundamentally boost our country’s economic potential. We can take that first step in May 2021 at the Senedd elections.