Guest post by Elin Walker Jones

Elin Walker Jones is the Plaid Cymru constituency candidate for Cardiff North.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, My Cardiff North.

The city of Cardiff is a small city, compared to cities across the UK and the rest of the world. Nevertheless, the benefits of living in Cardiff, and the problems that Cardiff faces are in line with any other urban areas albeit on a smaller scale.

People love Cardiff – the amenities, the opportunities for work and leisure that our beautiful city has to offer, and on the down side, as more and more flock to live here – particularly our young people – the problems of congestion, waste, and noise increase to intolerable levels. Crime becomes a bigger problem, and the need for communities living side by side to tolerate each other’s customs becomes an increasing issue. Cardiff has always been wonderfully multicultural: this fabulous diverse rainbow of people, food, language, lifestyles and customs were some of the things that appealed to me when I was first a student in Cardiff many years ago.

We need an ambitious government to tackle the problems of urban living, taking into consideration the effects of growth on the rest of Wales, and neighbouring countries such as England.

The Urban Age programme that looks at these issues in cities across the world. It is a collaboration between politicians, professionals and academics – people who don’t normally get together. The aim is to think and plan creatively for solutions to urban issues – to reduce traffic congestion, waste, noise pollution and so on, and increase active travel, recycling, etc. If people can get together across the world to think of solutions to such issues, why not Wales?

In Wales, we have a piecemeal approach. For example, the Labour-run Cardiff City Council and the Labour-run Caerphilly Council – neighbouring councils – are building homes without thinking about the effects on each other! Cardiff’s LDP includes plans for over 40,000 houses, including building on greenfield sites north of Cardiff. OK, the green wedge has it saved for now – just until 2026. But what about after that?

Caerphilly’s LDP includes plans to build over 600 homes on Caerphilly mountain, as well as a new road. Such plans will create a complete gridlock in Cardiff North – it’s bad enough already! Petitions are not going to resolve this. We need a Welsh Government planning strategy to take an overall view of planning in Wales, to make sure that houses, roads and general transport and economic infrastructure has a Welsh plan, and not just hope that the jigsaw pieces will fit somehow.

Plaid Cymru plans to create a Welsh Planning Inspectorate, which will oversee a National Development Framework, ensuring that local development plans take account of local needs for housing, protecting greenfield sites, and planning for the necessary infrastructure such as roads etc.

Labour have had 17 years to develop a Wales- wide strategy for planning, to build homes – affordable homes for people who want to bring up their families in a safe, warm, affordable and clean place that they can call their own. Where have Labour been?

Plaid Cymru has a range of policies that can support the development of Cardiff as a successful and vibrant city.

• Ambitious plans for infrastructure development, supporting the South East Wales Metro, and creating roads and railway transport links fit for the 21st century for the whole of Wales, in a joined up fashion.
• Abolishing the Right to Buy scheme, so that people can access rented housing, and supporting local authorities to build council housing.
• Progressive plans to tackle waste, by bringing the Zero Waste Wales commitment forward by twenty years, working with producers to reduce packaging, increase recycling facilities, ensure more and more items are recyclable, and make it a requirement for retailers and manufacturers to recycle, reuse, as well as reducing their food waste. Labour-run Cardiff City Council is busy closing recycling centres – making it more difficult for people to recycle their waste and increasing the likelihood of fly tipping.
• Pushing for the devolution of police and criminal justice powers to Wales, like they are in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
• Scrapping Police Commissioners and focus on much-needed community policing. The plan is to increase joint working between local authorities, housing associations and the police, so that together we can crack down in anti-social behaviour.

Wales needs change. Plaid Cymru is the only party that will put the needs of the people of Wales first. Plaid Cymru has an ambitious plan of government, fit for 21st century living.

Vote for Plaid Cymru on May 5th: the change Wales needs.

By Elin Walker Jones

twitter.com/elinmwj

Guest post by Elin Walker Jones

Elin Walker Jones is the Plaid Cymru constituency candidate for Cardiff North.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, My Cardiff North.

I am standing on behalf of Plaid Cymru in Cardiff North because Wales deserves a better future. For 17 years, we have suffered a Welsh Labour Government, too scared to stand up to the Tories in Westminster, too complacent to provide a vision for Wales. Time for change!

We must make sure that people have homes but not at the expense of our beautiful and precious planet. We have to protect green spaces, everywhere. In this respect, we have to protect the green belt around the north area of Cardiff, and make sure that houses are built on brownfield sites. Under the Welsh Labour Government for example, land was sold to developers for a fraction of what it was worth – scandalous! In Lisvane, land was sold at its farming value of £1.8m instead of its housing value of “at least £39m”. What a waste of public money. Money that could have been used to create jobs, homes, schools, hospitals.

Many people in Cardiff North work for the NHS, and we are all, NHS service users from time to time. I’ve spent twenty five years working in the NHS so I know only too well about the challenges facing our NHS. Thanks to miraculous advances in technology and science, we can save many more lives than ever before, we can alleviate suffering and improve people’s quality of life. However the NHS needs proper funding to do this, and a commitment from a strong Welsh Government over the long term. Plaid Cymru is committed to improving services, cutting waiting times for cancer patients, recruiting 1000 doctors and 5000 nurses, and abolishing home care charges for the elderly and people with dementia. And Plaid Cymru’s policy to tax sugary drinks has now received support from Jamie Oliver and even the Chancellor, George Osbourne!

However health is not just about acute services, not just about good hospitals, and not even just about good social care. Our biggest challenge in the 21st century is how do we transform the NHS from a treatment service to a service that promotes wellness and prevents illness.

Obesity, for example, is a 21st century crisis. 58% adults in Wales are overweight or obese (Welsh Health Survey 2015). In Merthyr Tydfil 1 in 6 children are obese, whilst a mere few miles away, 1 in 12 children are obese in the Vale of Glamorgan. We know that obesity is a direct result of poor diets, linked to social deprivation, and that it leads to preventable illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases which in turn, cost the NHS thousands of pounds each year. It doesn’t have to be like this!  A Plaid Cymru government will address the inequalities in the lifestyles of the Welsh population. We have so much to do and we have the will to make change.  A responsible government has a practical and moral duty to ensure that good, sustainable food is available to its population. Practically speaking, poor diets lead to obesity which costs the government in the form of an expensive health service. Morally speaking, a strong government has a moral responsibility to ensure that the population of its country is healthy and productive (Morgan, 2015). We can ensure that our precious NHS funds are spent on preventing rather than treating disease. We must support a food industry that produces food that is local, of good quality and affordable, for the health of the population and also for the health of the planet.

We must ensure that public health is properly funded, and people have the opportunities and skills to live healthy lives so they don’t get ill. This means supporting opportunities for active lifestyles, access to healthy food and affordable homes. Public health is also about educating our youngsters about emotional health and good citizenship, ensuring that they can learn work skills and access jobs, for a sense of wellbeing and purpose in life. It means building supportive communities, so we can help each other.

Wales needs a strong government with a vision for a healthy, sustainable future. Plaid Cymru is committed to a well Wales, a well-educated Wales and a wealthier Wales.

Plaid Cymru is the change that Wales needs.

Let’s do something different on May 5th – vote for change, vote for Plaid Cymru.

By Elin Walker Jones

twitter.com/elinmwj

*Morgan, K. (2015). The Senedd Papers #3: Good Food for All. www.iwa.org.uk