Labour is offering little more than a change of branding. Starmer will stick to Conservative spending rules, deny Wales’ fair share of transport funding, and stick with damaging Brexit red tape. Want real change? Vote Plaid Cymru.
Nid yw Llafur yn cynnig fawr mwy na newid brandio. Bydd Starmer yn cadw at reolau gwariant y Ceidwadwyr, yn gwadu cyfran deg Cymru o gyllid trafnidiaeth, ac yn cadw at bolisi Brexit niweidiol. Eisiau newid go iawn? Pleidleisia dros Blaid Cymru.
Plaid Cymru is the only party demanding that control of the Crown estates and its profits be devolved to Wales at this Westminster general election. As control of these resources could make a real difference when it comes developing sustainable green energy, green jobs and our economy bringing the change and the hope that our communties need.
The profits derived from the Crown Estate which include natural resources including tidal power, have been valued at a massive £853 million. Imagine what this could do for our communities - and yet, gains are redirected straight to the UK Treasury, with a portion handed directly to the Royal Family.
This is first and foremost an environmental issue. The devolution of powers over the management of the Crown Estate would bolster our efforts in Wales to reach net-zero through the integration of energy policy with our Net Zero Wales plan. Reinvesting profits in Wales could create thousands of well-paid green jobs, helping to address the persistent problems of low pay and job insecurity. It is also a matter of fairness.
The Crown estate's holdings north of the border were devolved to Scotland in 2016, and its revenue now goes to the Scottish government. In Wales nothing has been done to make the Crown Estate publicly account’s to the Senedd and the Welsh people. The Crown Estate owns the UK seabed out to 12 nautical miles.
This mens that in Scotland there is a very different system, where the Scottish government takes 100 percent of the profits generated by the Crown Estate Scotland, a separate entity. Ironically Westminster recognises that the Scottish Crown Estate should be managed by the Scottish Government and devolved those powers back in 2017. If it’s good enough for Scotland, so why not Wales?
Our energy and water resources including the responsibility for sewerage for the whole territory of Wales should be the responsibility of the Welsh Government. The Crown Estate still remains largely unaccountable to the people of Wales and all profits from its holdings (which includes on and off shore wind farms) are passed to the UK Westminster Government.
Profits from these holdings are likely to grow significantly mostly due to the growing demand for renewable energy. For way too long our natural resources and profits from them have been run for the benefit of others with few real or lasting benefits trickling down to the people of Wales. Ownership and control over the Crown Estates in Wales should be transferred to the Welsh Government.
The final say on how our natural resources are exploited and developed should be the direct responsibility of the Welsh people (and the Welsh Government) with 100% of the profits or dividends directly benefiting the people who live here rather than opaque absentee landlords or indifferent unaccountable Treasury officials.
The refusal to provide Wales the billions we are owed from England’s High Speed rail link is the most egregious example of the Tories and Labour colluding to keep Wales in the slow lane.
Wales’s rail network is creaking at the seams yet successive Tory and Labour governments in Westminster have failed to deliver the investment we need to create a public transport system fit for the 21st century.
By denying Wales billions of HS2 consequentials owed to us, the Tories are forcing Welsh taxpayers to foot the bill for a rail link where not a single metre of track will be built here.
Keir Starmer’s silence on the matter only exposes Labour’s complicity and shows that his party’s real priorities lie in Westminster, not Wales.
Do any other parties truly care for Wales?
Plaid Cymru are the only party truly fighting for fairness, and you can always count on us to put Wales' best interests first in Westminster 🏴
Join now - https://www.partyof.wales/join
Only Plaid Cymru stands up for Wales in demanding that all justice powers be held in Wales, so that we can create a Welsh way of policing that fits our needs as a country.
Dim ond Plaid Cymru sy'n sefyll i fyny dros Gymru wrth fynnu mai yng Nghymru y dylai'r bwerau dros gyfiawnder troseddol fod, er mwyn creu ffordd Gymreig o blismona sy'n addas ar gyfer ein anghenion fel gwlad.
Plaid Cymru has launched its manifesto for the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections – which are held on 2nd May 2024.
We’re standing to demand fair funding for our police forces, safer streets, and a Welsh justice system that will better serve the communities of Wales. You can read our manifesto here.
Over a decade of Tory and Welsh Labour cuts have starved our public services – including our police forces. Plaid Cymru do not believe this is as good as it gets.
Our current Plaid Cymru PCC Dafydd Llywelyn boasts an outstanding track record in Dyfed-Powys. His initiatives, such as introducing CCTV in towns across the region, establishing a rural crime team, and increasing the number of police officers and staff, show a commitment to delivering on promises.
On 2 May, we have the opportunity to build on these successes by electing more hard-working Plaid Cymru PCCs and to show that policing works effectively when it is led from within our communities – not directed from Westminster.
Your Plaid Cymru candidates for this election are:
Ann Griffith for North Wales
Dafydd Llywelyn for Dyfed Powys
Dennis Clarke for South Wales
Donna Cushing for Gwent
You can read more about them here.
While much of Wales dodged the bullet by way of serious floods after the prolonged heavy rain, our neighbours in the Severn Valley and elsewhere in England were not so lucky. While our communities may have got lucky recently, in a warmer wetter world floods and heavy rain events are going to become more common. Flood avoidance rather than flood prevention will help mitigate and reduce the problems that our communities will face with future floods.
We need to build into our communities the resilience to cope with flooding. The severity and frequency of future flooding events means that flood avoidance needs to become a strategic national priority and be a key principle in the siting of housing in and around our communities. 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 avoidance and develop flood avoidance schemes rather than end up clearing up after the flood is over again and again.
As our winters and our summers become both 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.
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. And 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.
We need to think and act smarter, and shift 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 should be 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 along with a rise in sea levels.
Many urban areas have developed with any serious co side ration of the impact of flash flooding - back in July 2021, 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.
There is certain a case that it if happens on London, then Westminster, at least in the short term cannot ignore it, if it happens outside of London then it’s another matter. In Pontypridd the exciting flood defences were overwhelmed more than once simply being in poor condition and unable to cope with the sheer volume of water.
Now elsewhere things are done differently - the sponge 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 - where 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 or we are going to be living with the consequences.
