: I notice that, in
the press release that accompanied that update last week, it
mentioned that, in the next phase, it'll move on to focusing on the
regional approach. Much of the focus at the moment has been very
much on the site itself, the legacy, the community fund that will
be left, which, I have to say—I'm sure my colleague Carwyn and I
will both agree—should be as large as any community fund that's
been left anywhere else when Ford have left a community. But, on
that regional approach, would he emphasise to the chair and the
taskforce members the necessity of working with Bridgend County
Borough Council on some of their regional plans as well, and those
would include ones such as economic hubs in the Garw and the Ogmore
valleys and development of empty or unused sites, such as the
Ewenny Road site as well? I think there's a real opportunity here,
First Minister, for the taskforce to work across the region with
some quite exciting plans that are already in the pipeline, and
that's the way we'll make the regeneration with this taskforce
really bite deep.
(First Minister of
Wales): Can I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for that, Llywydd,
and agree with him entirely that the closure of a plant like
Bridgend has a regional as well as a local impact? There will be
many Assembly Members here, to the east and to the west of
Bridgend, who have constituents who are working, have been
working, in Ford, and the impact of the closure will not simply
be felt in the immediate locality, but right across the region.
That is why the taskforce agreed at its last meeting on a
regional focus for the next phase of its work.
Certainly, it will want to work with Bridgend County Borough
Council to make sure that some of their wider ambitions can be
supported by the work of the taskforce. It's why, when
Ineos, for example, was brought to Bridgend
itself, the Welsh Government has had a real emphasis on supply
chain opportunities, because the companies that
Ineos will contract with will have a regional
impact beyond Bridgend as well, and the taskforce, I know, is
going, in its next phase of work, to have a particular focus on
that wider impact—the things that we can do beyond Bridgend as a
town—to make sure that the impact of the closure is attended to
in all its different dimensions.
