North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has criticised the Transport Secretary for dodging the key call in the North Wales Growth Bid for him to delegate powers to a new North Wales Regional Transport Body so that it may make the decisions.
Mr Isherwood was disappointed by the Secretary, Ken Skates’ response after he challenged him in the Assembly Chamber yesterday over this and other transport issues in North Wales.
Speaking in the Chamber, Mr Isherwood said:
“In your Statement (Transport for Wales) you say Transport for Wales will work with Welsh Government's new regional teams, emerging transport regional authorities and partners to create an integrated transport network. In this context, you'll be aware of the Growth Deal Bid from North Wales that was submitted a few days before Christmas, with negotiations due to commence with both Welsh Government and UK Government early this year. What, therefore, is the expected timescale for those negotiations?
“Given your instruction, in your Statement, to Transport for Wales to bring forward proposals for a North Wales Office, how do you respond to the Growth Bid's invitation to the Welsh Government to support the formation of a Regional Transport Body to deliver strategic transport planning and projects in North Wales, on a region-wide basis, with powers delegated to the body from local authorities and Welsh Government to allow it to operate in an executive capacity, with a regional transport fund of £150 million over 10 years, including the Welsh Government's existing £50 million for the North Wales Metro commitment?
“Would you also tell me why there's been no Welsh Government conversation with Bus Users Cymru regarding rail-bus integration? What is Transport for Wales doing regarding bus passenger representation, as well as engagement with sector providers?
“Clearly, you will be aware of D Jones & Son, Acrefair bus operators, ceasing to operate just before Christmas, following the demise of GHA Coaches in 2016. Concerns were raised earlier regarding the impact on Wrexham Industrial Park (Estate), and employees not being able to get home between 5 and 6 in the evening. How, therefore, do you respond to a concern raised with me, and with you in writing, by the Lead Member for Transport at Wrexham, but also by representatives of the Confederation of Passenger Transport Cymru, Bus Users Cymru, Traveline Cymru and the Welsh Local Government Association in the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee last week, that there had been no tangible actions or outcomes coming out from your Bus Summit in January 2016 and the workshops that followed?
“And, finally, it's a question actually from a Flintshire resident and constituent who travels cross-border, and is in the context of cross-border provision: what action do you propose where the integrated conurbation of Deeside and Merseyside is only linked by an 'unlit, single lane trunk road, with the A550 road blocked or choked every day' as people from north Wales travel between Deeside, Flintshire, North Wales and the Wirral and Merseyside?”
Mr Isherwood added: “Ken Skates response was both a disgraceful example of buck passing and potentially alarming for North Wales. In stating that he has already established a North Wales Metro Steering Group, he is dodging the key call in the North Wales Growth Bid for him to delegate powers to a new North Wales Regional Transport Body so that it may make the decisions. Further, not only does Wrexham Council’s Lead Member for Place (Environment and Transport) state in a 12th January 2018 letter to Mr Skates that he is ‘concerned that there does not appear to be any evidence to suggest that any tangible progress has been made thus far to arrest the decline in the local bus industry’, but also we heard from bus sector representatives in Committee only last week that they haven’t yet seen the outputs of Mr Skates’ Wrexham Bus Summit a year ago, and subsequent workshops, and that everyone’s still waiting to hear an outcome and for direction.
“Mr Skates referred to the £300,000 he provided to North East Wales ‘to be able to deal with the collapse of GHA and the fragility of the local bus network’, but I am advised that this was administered by Flintshire and that Wrexham only received £39,000 of this. It can not be right that Mr Skates is using public funds to provide free TrawsCymru bus trips to the seaside at weekends when people can’t get to work or the Doctor.”