3^rd Public Meeting held at Haverfordwest

Thursday, 10 April 2003

RECORD OF WRITTEN QUESTIONS AND OPINIONS

I attended the Commission’s public meeting at Haverfordwest this evening and listened to the points raised. I also made some points myself.

I am writing to reinforce the points I made. All the people at the meeting were politically active. We would all have different points to make about the effectiveness of the present administration. However, the majority of people of Pembrokeshire are not convinced as to the worth of the Assembly. Like many at the meeting, I am currently canvassing for a political party. There is a great deal of scepticism about the Assembly and a great deal of public confusion about its function. I would not be surprised if there is a very low turnout at the Elections. It is my view that until there is more public support for the activities of the Assembly, it’s justification as a vehicle for "public accountability" is extremely thin.

In this climate, it seems ridiculous to be talking of either increasing the number of Assembly Members or indeed increasing the powers of the Assembly. (I accept there must be some tidying at the edges – at secondary level only). I believe that your recommendations should be extremely modest.

A further referendum (this time with a built in threshold) at a later stage when the Assembly is more established, which I believe would be in favour of the Assembly, would "legitimise" what, as yet, is a very tentative body."

Jill Chambers

Tynnaf sylw’r comisiwn at ddarlith yr Arglwydd Gwilym Prys Davies I gyfarfod Cymdeithas y Cyfreithwyr yn Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Llanelli 2000 (darperir copiau gan swyddfa Cymdeithas y Cyfreithwyr yng Nghaerdydd). Un o bwyntiau sylfaenol y ddarlith oedd bod yn rhaid I’r cynulliad ddefnyddio’r pwerau sydd ganddi.

Daeth gwendidau y sefyllfa bresennol yn ystod helynt clwyf y traed a’r genau ddechrau 2001, pan yr ymddangosai’r Cynulliad yn ansicr neu’n amharod I defnyddio’I phwerau (neu efallai ei fod yn cael ei rwystro rhag gwneud gan weinidogion San Steffan). Y canlyniad oedd dryswch, oedi a cholledion pellach I amaethwyr Cymru. Os yw’r mater wedi ei ddatganoli, yna mae’n rhaid I San Steffan ddeall yn ddigamsyniol mai mater I’r cynulliad ydyw.

Engraifft arall yw mater cynllunio a rhoi caniatad I godi tai, yn enwedig yng nghefn gwlad Ceredigion. Mae San Steffan wedi datgan bod rhaid codi hyn a hyn o dai ychwanegol. Nid oes swyddi yng Ngorllewin Cymru, ac mae ein pobl ifanc yn gadael eu broydd genedigol. I bwy felly mae’r tai hyn yn cael eu code? Ond mae materiod tai a chynllunio wedi eu datganoli onid ydynt? Ai John Prescott, Gordon Brown felly neu ein cynrhychiolwyr yn y Cynnulliad ddylai benderfynu ar y polisi?

Ni fydd gweinidogion San Steffan yn debyg o dderbyn datganoli oni fydd y gweision sifil yn gwneud. Cyfeiriaf y comisiwn at ddarlith flynyddol Cymdeithas y Cyfreithwyr yn Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Tyddewi 2002 (wele gopi). Nid yw meddylfryd "Yes, Minister" yn gydnaws a Chymru’r ganrif newydd.

Mae’n ymddangos yn hollol bisar bod gan gynghorau cymuned yr hawl I godi trethi ond nid oes gan y Cynuuliad yr hawl I godi ceiniog o dreth.

Mae’n amlwg wedi helynt darparu arian cyfatebol Amcan Un a fwyfwy dros gyflwr amaethyddiaeth a physgodfeydd yng Nghymru bod rhaid I’r Cynulliad gael cynrhycholiaeth uniongyrchol I’r Comisiwn Ewropeaidd.

Translated from Welsh

1. It must be remembered when judging how the Assembly operated during its first four years that it has only been four years since it was established. The Westminster parliament has been operational for nearly eight hundred years, and according to many that one isn’t perfect.

2. I draw the commission’s attention to Lord Gwilym Prys Davies’s lecture to the meeting of the Law Society in the Llanelli National Eisteddfod 2000 (copies are provided by the Law Society office in Cardiff). One of the fundamental points of the lecture is that the Assembly must use the powers which it has.

The weaknesses of the current situation became apparent during the foot and mouth disease crisis at the beginning of 2001, when the Assembly seemed unsure or unwilling to use its powers (or was maybe prevented from doing so by Westminster ministers). The result was confusion, delay and further losses for Welsh farmers. If the matter has been devolved, then Westminster must unequivocally understand that it is a matter for the Assembly.

Another example is the issue of planning and giving permission to build housing, especially in the Ceredigion countryside. Westminster has stated that a certain number of additional houses must be built. There aren’t any jobs in West Wales, and our young people are leaving the areas of their birth. For whom, therefore, are these houses being built? But housing and planning issues are devolved aren’t they? Should John Prescott, Gordon Brown or our representatives in the Assembly therefore decide on the policy?

3. Westminster ministers are not likely to accept devolution unless civil servants do so. I refer the commission to the Law Society’s annual lecture in St David’s National Eisteddfod 2002 (see copy). The "Yes, Minister" mindset is not in tune with the Wales of the new century.

4. It seems completely bizarre that community councils have the right to raise taxes, yet the Assembly does not have the right to raise a penny in tax.

5. It is obvious after the debacle of providing Objective One matching funds and especially the state of agriculture and fisheries in Wales that the Assembly must have direct representation to the European Commission.

Mererid Moffett

"The present system produces a result which is unbalanced, unfair and completely ignores minority – even substantial minority- views. A true democracy must represent the views of a wider range of people. The electorate may then feel it is worthwhile voting.

W C Philpin