Politics

Manifesto Destiny #2: The Conservatives

Published

3 years ago

April 13, 2021

Jon Coles

THE WELSH Conservatives have delayed their Manifesto’s launch for May 6’s elections to the Welsh Parliament.

After the Duke of Edinburgh’s death, the Conservatives delayed their Manifesto’s launch for a week.

The UK Government announced eight days of national mourning leading up to and including the day of Prince Philip’s funeral on Saturday, April 17.

The Manifesto will launch on Wednesday, April 21, in North Wales. In this area, the Conservatives hope to make significant gains at Labour’s expense.

Although political campaigning continued between Tuesday, April 13 and Friday, April 16, the Conservatives’ decision gives the Party the best chance to trail its Manifesto in the period after Saturday the 17th.

It will also give Labour and Plaid Cymru less time to take pot-shots at it before polling day.

WHAT’S IN IT SO FAR?

Before the announcement of the Manifesto’s delay, the Conservatives gave a good idea of some of the policies it is likely to contain.

An underlying thread of the Manifesto, and the Conservative campaign, will be the length of time Labour has been in power in Wales. Either on its own, in combination with others, or propped up by rag-tag and bobtail, Labour has held power in Cardiff Bay for twenty-two years.

Both the Conservatives and Plaid have homed in on Labour’s ever-presence in government. To date, both principal opposition parties suggest Labour is tired and warming over old pledges without any sense of direction.

On policy, the Conservatives’ most significant risk is allowing Labour and Plaid to box them in on the charge of ‘for Wales, see England’. Labour needs to tread carefully on that point. One of the criticisms both Plaid and the Conservatives have made is that the Party has cut and pasted Westminster legislation into its own proposals for the much-talked-about and constantly delayed Agriculture Bill. Agriculture is an area of policy on which both Plaid and the Conservatives call for bespoke Welsh legislation.

On Tuesday (April 13), the Conservatives placed even more clear blue water between their proposals for Wales and those pursued by the Westminster government.

A PLAN FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

The Conservatives’ plan for Wales’ young people includes a promise to deliver 150,000 apprenticeships by 2026 and scrapping the Welsh Baccalaureate. Those are long-term ambitions flagged previously; however, the Conservative proposals contain radical changes to higher education and access to training, education and employment.

Those changes include:

Helping young people access education, training and employment with free bus travel and discounted rail travel for 16-24-year-olds
Refunding tuition fees for those who choose to work for at least five years as doctors or nurses in the Welsh NHS, or as teachers in Welsh Schools after their studies; and
Cutting tuition fees in half for Welsh students studying STEM and modern foreign language subjects at Welsh universities in recognition of their value to the Welsh economy

Looking at the lessons learned throughout the pandemic, the Conservatives also plan to ensure all of Wales’ schools, colleges and universities have mental health services for learners to access.

OLDER PEOPLE

At the other end of the age spectrum, Welsh Conservatives will introduce an Older People’s Bill in the next Senedd. That proposal includes a legal requirement for public sector bodies to consult with older people when making decisions that affect their lives.

The Party’s pledges of support for older people in Wales include:

Maintaining free prescriptions.
Keeping Free bus travel.
Promote Free entry to CADW sites for the over 75s.
Pilot free rail travel for over 75s.
Run annual national awareness campaigns against elder abuse, age discrimination and scams and swindles; and
Ensuring older people can access Welsh Government-funded work programmes.

THE WELSH NHS

On the Welsh NHS, the Conservatives announced plans to put into law fundamental guarantees through an NHS Covenant.

The Covenant would ensure that Welsh NHS staff and volunteers are treated with fairness and respect by future Welsh Governments.

The Conservatives say the NHS Covenant would provide guaranteed support in several ways, including:

Increased investment in the NHS, with at least an extra 2% uplift in the NHS budget each year
Staff receive the pay as recommended by the independent NHS Pay Review Body
Guaranteeing the NHS remains in public hands and is free at the point of use
Improved staff well-being with more flexible working hours, increased holiday, greater access to childcare and mental health provision
Stamping out abuse of NHS staff

The NHS Covenant Bill would also put an NHS Reservists programme in place to enable public and former healthcare professionals to volunteer at their local NHS team during periods of high demand.

The NHS Reservists would operate on a part-time basis and create a structured environment for people to give back to the NHS, enabling the NHS to call up reservist skills when needed, including non-clinical roles such as drivers, electricians and people to be there to ensure no-one faces the end of their life alone.

COUNCIL TAX

The Conservatives – like Plaid Cymru – have promised to freeze Council Tax for the first two years of the next Senedd term. However, and like Plaid Cymru, the promise of tying Council funding to the headline rate of inflation ignores the fact that costs to Council increase at a compounding rate far beyond the Consumer Price Index.

Freezing Council Tax – unless the whole shortfall is made up by the Welsh Government (unlikely given the NHS spending pledge) – will mean cuts in Council services and a reduction in local authorities’ ability to bankroll the Conservatives’ other pledges.

THE CLEAREST OF BLUE WATER

The one element of any Conservative Manifesto upon which the clearest blue water will be evident relates to the Senedd, its powers, its make-up, and the question of further or total Welsh autonomy. In a speech delivered on April 7, the Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies could not have been clearer. He pledged, ‘no more powers, no more politicians, no more taxes, no more constitutional chaos’.

He continued: ‘Independence would put our recovery after coronavirus at risk.

‘A strong economic recovery is dependent on being part of one strong United Kingdom.

‘And home rule is just another excuse to mask Labour’s failings.

‘A referendum would plunge Wales into chaos at a time when we need to focus on recovery.

‘We already have the tools to change course and build a better Wales.

‘After the devastation of covid to our economy and people’s livelihoods we can’t afford to focus on the constitution’.

That’s not only turning his Party’s back on any change to the current constitutional arrangements; it hits at Labour’s windy wish to renegotiate Wales’ status within the UK and a rejection of a critical element of Plaid’s appeal to voters. As a proposition, it’s carefully calibrated to suggest that Cardiff Bay’s parties’ priorities don’t match voters’ needs. It’s an either/or line: concentrate on rebooting the Welsh economy or focus on Wales’ and the UK’s constitutional settlement.

The water couldn’t be clearer or bluer. The open question is how many voters are prepared to take the plunge and whether Labour – on the hottest political issue in Wales – will end up stranded on a shrinking and increasingly untenable middle ground between Plaid and the Conservatives.

Community

Pembroke Dock day centre to close despite stay of execution

Published

15 hours ago

October 7, 2024

Bruce Sinclair - Local Democracy Reporter

Pembroke Dock’s Anchorage day centre will close in less than a month, after a final decision was backed by senior councillors.

Last month, a successful ‘call-in’ by Independent Group leader Cllr Huw Murphy at an extraordinary meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s social care overview and scrutiny committee, was supported by fellow group members.

The county council is currently changing care provision for older adults and those with learning disabilities, with identified budget saving included in the 2024-’25 budget, and closure of Pembroke Dock’s Anchorage day care centre was agreed by senior councillors at the September 9 meeting of the council’s Cabinet, despite an earlier petition and impassioned pleas to keep it open.

At an earlier full council meeting a plea by local councillors Tony Wilcox and Brian Hall to give the Anchorage a breathing space ahead of a potential service move to an as-yet-unbuilt facility at Pembroke’s South Quay development, expected to open in 2026.

The November 1 Anchorage closure was backed along with wider changes in the service; establishing social enterprise models in Crymych’s Bro Preseli and Narberth’s Lee Davies Centre with effect from April 1 of next year.

The anchorage building is council owned while the other two are not.

After that Cabinet decision, the later ‘call-in’ asked for the decision to be referred back to Cabinet for further discussion on the social enterprise model, with a potential piloting in Bro Preseli, along with what bridging options could be considered for the Anchorage while awaiting the South Quay development.

A report at Thursday’s special Cabinet meeting of October 3, presented by Cllr Tessa Hodgson, Cabinet Member for Social Care and Safeguarding, said, in relation to the first part of the ‘call-in’: “The Day Centre provision in Crymych and Narberth will remain open under current SLAs until March 31, 2025. A social enterprise will be supported to engage with the local community, service users, their families, and other stakeholders to develop and pilot alternative models of delivery.”

In relation to the Anchorage, it said: “The South Quay development will open in 2026, providing a co-located and integrated health and care setting, with further day opportunities and supported employment options for local residents.

“The Anchorage is open four days a week, providing services from the base 3.5 days with people attending alternative settings on a Friday. With regards to bridging alterations, the Cabinet report on September 9 set out a number of alternatives to attendance at the Anchorage.

“All of these alternatives constitute bridging options for those that wish to attend South Quay from 2026 onwards.”

Those alternatives include day opportunities at the Meadow Park Centre, Community-based activities in the Pembroke Dock Community Hall, and community-based activities at the VC Gallery, Pembroke Dock, the report added.

Members heard the anchorage day centre needed a new ceiling, roof, fire doors and electrics, which would cost some £500,000 to completely refurbish, or £295,000 to bring it up to standard to remain open for two years before the South Quay development was ready, with fears that rate could be even higher.

The council will be exiting service level agreements with the Bro Preseli Day Centre in Crymych and the Lee Davies Day Centre in Narberth and as one of many alternatives, will be working in partnership to promote social enterprise alternatives. Work is now underway to establish a suitable pilot which will see further strengthening of links between PCC and the Third Sector.

News

Welsh Government urged to adopt successful family court model

Published

5 days ago

October 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THE WELSH GOVERNMENT have been urged to adopt a successful family court model to help cut down on the number of children taken into care.

Speaking to the Siambr on Tuesday, Mid and West Wales MS Jane Dodds called for the adoption of the Family Drug and Alcohol Court model, which is a therapeutic problem-solving court model that focuses on allowing children to remain with their families where possible while also stopping parental drug misuse.

The Welsh Government had previously run a pilot version of the court model last year in Cardiff, which saw a remarkable decline in substance misuse and a rise in the number of children staying in parental care.

Drug misuse amongst parents declined from 83% to 54%, with 29% of parents achieving sobriety.

Meanwhile, the number of children in parental care more than doubled from 14% to 32%, resulting in more families staying together.

Despite successful results, the scheme was ended last year due to budgeting constraints.

Jane Dodds MS has criticised the Welsh Government for scrapping the scheme, and has asked them to reverse their decision and provide future long-term funding for the scheme, stating that “this court model could prove to be transformative to family justice here in Wales”

I was disappointed to see that, despite successful results from the pilot model in Cardiff, this potentially life-changing model was scrapped due to a withdrawal of funding by the Welsh Labour Government.

We have a golden opportunity here to change our system for the better, ensuring that children are able to stay together with their families, giving them a brighter future in the long-term.”

News

Plans unveiled for flood wall to reduce tidal flood risk in Cardigan

Published

5 days ago

October 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

PLANS for a proposed flood wall that would reduce tidal flood risk to around 90 homes and businesses in Cardigan has been unveiled as the Cardigan Tidal Flood Scheme reaches its latest milestone.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has outlined the indicative placement for the wall, which would reduce tidal flood risk to the Strand area of the town. The wall would be located between the Gloster Row car park and the river, following the existing river wall as closely as possible until it reaches the bathroom centre. From there, the alignment would extend slightly into the river channel before returning to the existing river boundary under Cardigan Castle, finishing at Cardigan Bridge.

NRW is exploring the possibility of creating a new public area behind the flood wall close to Cardigan Bridge and in front of Cardigan Castle, offering both reduced flood risk and community enhancements.

Chris Pratt, Project Manager for NRW, acknowledged the concerns residents have around increasing flood risk in the area:

“We understand how anxious people living in the Strand area are to have a tidal flood defence in place that will reduce risk to their homes. We are working on plans to build a defence that will offer a high level of flood protection and takes into account predicted rising sea levels.

“We are also looking at ways to provide community benefits where possible, so this scheme doesn’t just reduce the risk of flooding to homes and businesses, but also supports the local area in other ways.”

NRW is aiming to keep the slipway adjacent to Gloster Row car park, which would likely include flood gates at the top. Additionally, discussions with the local Sea Scouts and other businesses are ongoing to ensure access to the river is maintained.

The proposed wall’s alignment follows consultation with the community, held in late 2022. Feedback from these sessions has been carefully considered alongside existing constraints, including the historic impact, technical challenges, and environmental factors.

With the outline design complete, NRW is now entering the detailed design phase, which will determine final construction details, materials, and the flood wall’s ability to withstand future climate change. This phase will also explore further community and environmental improvements to accompany the core flood protection work. The continued funding for the scheme has been provided by the Welsh Government.

NRW will continue to engage with the community as the project moves forward, ensuring the scheme offers vital flood defences while also enhancing Cardigan for future generations.

With 1 in 7 homes and businesses in Wales at risk of flooding, and with the climate emergency bringing more extreme weather, it is more important than ever that people know and understand their flood risk.

Ahead of the winter period, NRW is encouraging people who live in areas at risk of flooding, but who have not experienced flooding before, to take three simple steps to help protect their home, possessions and family from the devastating effect of flooding in the future:

check your flood risk by postcode online on NRW’s website
sign up for free flood warnings from rivers and the sea in Welsh or English
be prepared when flooding is forecast
A digital newsletter for residents and other people who are interested in the scheme has been launched. People can sign up for the newsletter by using this link: https://bit.ly/CTFSNewsletter .