MS, Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales:
The Task Force was established to address the resilience of
Welsh, Irish Sea Ports following incidents at Holyhead Port and
the observation of more frequent port closures due to bad weather
as climate change takes effect. Discussions over
the past 12 months within the Irish Sea Taskforce has reinforced
the importance of Holyhead and our other Irish Sea facing ports
to communities in Wales and Ireland and beyond, and our shared
interest and responsibility, both now and in the future, to make
sure they thrive and grow. Our proximity and common maritime
story bind us together through economic and trading ties, with
significant levels of export, investment and tourism between us.
The taskforce consisted of a core group, including among others,
representatives from the Government of Ireland, the UK
government, the Scottish Government, the Northern Ireland
Executive, local authorities, port and ferry operators, and
representatives of the logistics sector. We also drew on specific
sectoral expertise during thematic meetings of the
Taskforce.
I would like to extend my thanks to all those who have
contributed over the past 12 months and I'm pleased to be able to
publish our recommendations. The beginning of this month saw us
drawing on our experiences and initiating some of the learnings
of the taskforce sessions following the brief closure of Holyhead
Port but not having to stand the taskforce up formally.
Many of these recommendations will be included as part of a wider
list of priorities contained within the ports and maritime,
freight and logistics plan which we have committed to publish
before the end of Government term. The published plan will enable
the next Government to clearly see what the priorities of the
Irish Sea Taskforce and the sector are and be able to move them
forward as they see fit. As part of that work, we have
committed to establish a freight council. We see the Welsh
Logistics Council as a natural follow on from this taskforce. The
Council remit is likely to be wide ranging therefore flexibility
is key. For example, we hope to draw on the Council's specific
sectoral expertise once formed to monitor the progress of the
recommendations agreed by the Irish Sea task force as part of
their remit to consider ports, freight and logistics identified
priorities in the published plan.
I have also approved contracted services to survey truck stop
facilities as a priority action in support of the plan which will
be published next year. This will support and inform the
recommendations which includes resilience work on the A55,
A494 and M4 corridors, progressing work on Menai Crossings
resilience and an update on potential A55 improvements and work
with regional transport partners to understand what further
improvements could be made to A40/A477. We will also look
at refining and improving stacking arrangements in the event of
issues at ports and finally considering interim solutions to the
welfare needs of drivers who are stranded or in stack
arrangements because of port closures and the delivery of said
welfare provision.
