Caerphilly Senedd Member Lindsay Whittle has launched a stinging attack on the lack of rail funding for the Valleys network provided by the Westminster Labour Government.
He told the Senedd during a Plaid Cymru debate on rail funding: “When we talk about devolution, in particular the core Valleys lines in 2020, we have to ask ourselves a very simple, honest question. Can we truly call it devolution if the cheque book didn't follow down the tracks?
“In Scotland and Northern Ireland, when rail infrastructure was devolved, the funding arrangements were modified to match, they got the powers and the pounds. But here in Wales, we were handed the responsibility, told to get on with it and then forced to cannibalise our existing budget to pay for it.
“Professor Mark Barry (of Cardiff University) rightly puts 'devolution' in inverted commas when talking about the core Valleys line. It deserves repeating three times, because it hammers the message home. It's a devolution in name, but a drain in practice. Every penny we have to divert to prop up underfunded rail infrastructure is a penny taken away from schools in my constituency in Caerphilly or a hospital wing in any hospital across the whole of Wales.”
Lindsay Whittle added: “I am certain that the Cabinet Secretary will stand up today and boast about the £48m announced in the Spending Review. Look, we never turn our noses up at extra funding in Wales—of course we don't—but let's look at the fine print, the part, of course, that the Labour Government seems to have conveniently forgotten how to read since the general election.
“That investment is spread over 10 years—it's worth repeating: 10 years. It's a fact that Wales needs £250 million extra every single year just to reach parity with England. It's a fact that this top-up is a drop in the ocean. It's a fact that it's a sticking plaster on a gaping wound caused by Westminster's systematic underfunding. The reality is this: we wouldn't need these one-off gifts if the UK Government had adjusted the block grant fairly in the first place.”
- A Plaid Cymru appeal for the devolving of rail to Wales was voted down by Labour.