---

Transport (Wales) Bill

I apologise. Several people have expressed concern about the proposal to use taxpayers’ money to support a daily air service between Anglesey and Cardiff. I shall not go into detail about that because it has been adequately covered. I was reassured by the recognition of the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) that we need to move to a position not of continuous subsidy of an air service but of more strategic use of the money to invest in developing infrastructure and airport facilities. I would support that. I am slightly worried that some of the environmental questions that have been legitimately raised by organisations such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Cymru and Friends of the Earth have been glossed over. No one has mentioned the principle of the polluter pays. It would be interesting to see how that fits into the context of subsidising air services. Ultimately, the air service will be small scale for high-value individuals, companies and public servants. I do not object to the notion of sensible transport planning at Assembly level. However, I am somewhat sceptical of the value of grand transport strategies on paper when there is no real investment stacked behind it. Hon. Members may remember the Prime Minister’s declaring in his first annual report in 1998 that the integrated transport strategy for the UK was ““delivered””. Delivering words on paper is all well and good but what matters for transport is funding, tough and correct choices of competing infrastructure projects and the ability to manage them ruthlessly to completion. I hope that my worries prove groundless and that the Bill, along with other measures, does exactly what its salesmen have claimed for it in the House.