I again visited Llangollen Railway’s Corwen Central Station site and was hugely impressed by the progress achieved. The dedication and commitment of the team of volunteers who make this happen is incredible, and especially so when I understand that their average age on this site is 68. The notional value of the volunteer hours exceeds £200,000 this year, without which the project would be unaffordable.The goal is for this new rail terminus to become operational in 2019, subject to continued financial support, where approximately 75% of the project cost has to be raised through Llangollen Railway’s share issue, donations and appeals.
I was honoured to attend Friday’s Wrexham Glyndŵr University 2017 Graduation Ceremony for Animal and Plant Biology and Engineering. Congratulations to all involved.
Following speeches by Conwy Council Leader, Cllr Gareth Jones, and the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, Sarah Rochira, it was a pleasure to give the Closing Speech at Friday’s Over 50’s ‘Ageing Well Celebration Event’ in Llandudno organised by my colleague, Janet Finch-Saunders AM. Referring to the good work happening in our communities every single day, Sarah Rochira praised our “wonderful third sector”, emphasised the importance to older people of belonging to a community and stated that “public services need to understand that the little things make life big”. As she asked “Why aren’t we focusing more on the outcomes that matter to you?”. I emphasised that “the third sector reaches the parts that the public sector doesn’t reach” and the need to do things ‘with’ people rather than ‘to’ or ‘for’ them.
After 18 years of Labour Welsh Government, new data for 2016 from the Office for National Statistics showing that the number of children in long-term workless households in Wales increased, whilst decreasing in the other UK nations, is deeply worrying. Both the proportion of children in Wales living in long-term workless households (in which all those over the age of 16 have either never been in work or have been unemployed for more than 12 months) and the proportion in workless households (under 12 months) are above the UK average. We know that children growing up in working households do better in school and are more likely to be in work in adult life, so it’s shocking to see Wales falling behind. This reinforces concern that Wales is trailing behind UK levels of employment, economic inactivity, GVA prosperity per head (value of goods and services produced), earnings and Gross Disposable Household Income per head.
If you need my help, please email mark.isherwood@assembly.wales or ring 0300 200 7217.