On May 7th, the people of Montgomeryshire elected their Member of Parliament. I would like to extend my congratulations to Glyn Davies who has been re-elected as our MP.
I am looking forward to continuing our close working relationship in supporting the residents of Montgomeryshire over the next year until next May’s Assembly Election, when it will be my turn to seek your approval to remain as the Assembly Member for Montgomeryshire, a position which I’m honoured to hold.
Over the last few months, I have been involved with the Welsh Government’s proposed planning legislation and have been leading on this piece of legislation on behalf of the Welsh Conservatives. The Bill has just reached the end of its legislative journey and my view is that the final legislation is unnecessarily complex and will erode local democratic accountability.
To succeed, this Bill had to streamline and simplify the planning process, and ensure that the planning system became more democratic, empowering local people to make the big decisions that will impact upon their lives. Unfortunately the complete opposite has occurred as the Bill centralises too much power in the hands of Welsh Government Ministers.
Instead of a radical and ambitious piece of legislation which would devolve more power to local communities and put decisions in the hands of local people, the changes to the planning system regrettably fails to properly devolve power down to the communities of Wales.
In my view, the people of Mid Wales already feel distant from the political bubble in Cardiff Bay where decisions are imposed upon them, often without consideration of local circumstances. Therefore, the Welsh Conservatives could not ultimately support this piece of legislation.
In recent months, I have also continued to work hard to ensure that fibre broadband is rolled out to as many people as possible at the earliest opportunity.
I recently met with BT for an update on the Superfast Cymru scheme and they informed me that around a third of properties (13,000) in Montgomeryshire are now able to receive high-speed broadband. I was also encouraged to hear that good progress is being made on the remaining properties.
In the past, I have expressed some concern that rural residents in Montgomeryshire may be left behind and that the Welsh Government’s ambitious target of making superfast broadband available to 96% of premises in Wales by Spring next year, wouldn’t be hit, so it is comforting to know that BT still believe they are on target to meet this obligation by Spring 2016. I shall continue to work with, and hold BT and the Welsh Government to account in this regard.
Finally, over the next month, I am holding two drop-in surgeries at ‘Morrisons’ in Newtown and Welshpool on Friday 5th and Friday 19th June respectively between 5pm and 7pm. I’ll be positioned at the front of the store by the checkout and you don’t require an appointment so please come along if you have an issue to discuss. Also, if you would like me to hold an advice surgery at your business or local community event, please don’t hesitate to contact me. My constituency office telephone number is 01686 610887.