6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
I can, but I'm going to ask Neil to do it, I'm afraid. [Laughter.]
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
So, I think we'd be very keen to hear views from the committee about how to get as many people who might be in an impacted area engaged as possible. So, what would the notification process look like? It has to be proportionate to the cost of the development…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
I think that's what we're trying to do through the local impact reports. So, at the moment—. Just to be really clear, at the moment, if you love a planning consent, there's nothing to stop you writing to the local authority saying how much you love it; it's…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
Might I suggest, Chair—it's not for me to set your work programme, but I'm more than happy to come and talk to the committee about general planning policy otherwise. Can I just say that this Bill is about the process? So, when somebody gets consent through…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
So, there are two things there. This Bill is about particular infrastructure developments, which won't fall into that—we're in danger of straying out more widely into the planning system, forgive me. But there are two things there: there are compulsory…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
So, as Neil has very fairly set out, there's a difference between being heard and having your views taken on board 100 per cent, and to be fair, lots of community groups are heard and their views are partially taken on board. So, I disagree with you about the…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
So, just to be really clear.
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
If you own the energy locally, you can use it, if you produce it locally, you can have the benefit of a community benefit fund, but that cannot include cheaper energy.
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
They're not allowed to do that, to be fair. [Laughter.]
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
Yes, so, for example, part of the end-do-end marine licensing process, we certainly had a look at that—discussed with various groups why they didn't or did put things in at the time. Neil's officials have done that a lot. And I suppose, also, we're going to…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
We're planning to put a prescribed process in place, but, in all honesty, if the committee has any ideas at all about what that should have in it, then we'd be very grateful to receive them. You're taking evidence, I know. There are lots of technologies…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
No, that's a very good question, actually, Delyth, because it does consolidate, if you like, the point in time at which you are able to get involved. For some of the processes we're consolidating, there's no current requirement to consult at all, so, although…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
Yes, yes. So what we'll do is we'll work with the local authorities to make sure that, when we put the regulations in place that say what the minimum requirements of an impact report look like, we will have co-produced it with them. But we have a minimum…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
And then, because this will capture developments for marine as well, it's much more complicated than that. So, they'll be required to put in a local impact report and that can be put in by any relevant community councils as well, if they want to do so, and…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
This is very complicated as well, because this, of course, covers marine, as well as land-based issues. We've had a long discussion with local authorities about this, and, again, Neil and colleagues have been 'embroiled'—I think is the word—in discussions…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
I seem to spend half my life in meetings with people about grids, overhead lines, et cetera. The officials have met a number of times with National Grid and Scottish Power as well, and that's around the consenting regime for them, and the general network…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
I'll defer to Neil in a moment, but just to say, Huw, what we've been trying to do is to make sure that the Bill is sufficiently flexible to be futureproof. Much of the discussion that you're talking about there has been not really to shape the Bill any…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
The vast majority of people who responded were very much in support of the proposals, and effectively saying how we started this meeting, which is, 'Why not just get on with it?' So, they weren't looking for changes so much as speed, really. Some of the…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
As always when we look at human rights, we look to see whether what we're doing is proportionate, justified and reasonable. It's the same mantra every time—whether we've got the balance of rights right between individual rights and the public interest. So…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
I think there's a real serious risk of developers just going somewhere else, because if we can't speed up the system, then it takes a lot of time and effort to get particular things in place. The committee may well be thinking of a renewable developer, for…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
It's just about the resource available and the number of experts that we need for this particular Bill whose expertise was also required for a number of other things, like the European Union exit arrangements, and so on. And in the end, we've only got so many…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
Diolch, Cadeirydd. We've been preparing for a very long time this very large and very technical Bill and the explanatory memorandum for introduction to the Senedd. It's been a long time coming, so my thanks to the team of people who've been doing all of that…
6 Gorffennaf 2023 , Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Bil Seilwaith (Cymru) – Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda'r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
You're testing my Welsh now.
5 Gorffennaf 2023 , Cyfarfod Llawn
Cwestiynau i’r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
Mae'n wir ddrwg gennyf, Peredur, ond ni allaf wneud sylwadau ar fater ymgyfreitha sydd ar y gweill, yn enwedig o ystyried sylwadau a wnewch am y farn gyfreithiol sy'n cael ei mynegi. Ar ryw bwynt, Lywydd, rwy'n siŵr y gallwn ei drafod yn iawn, ond rwy'n ofni…
5 Gorffennaf 2023 , Cyfarfod Llawn
Cwestiynau i’r Gweinidog Newid Hinsawdd
Diolch yn fawr, Peredur. Cyflwynwyd apêl, ac felly mae'n bwysig iawn nad wyf yn dweud unrhyw beth a allai arwain at her gyfreithiol yn y dyfodol mewn ymateb i unrhyw benderfyniad gan Weinidogion Cymru mewn perthynas â'r achos hwn, mae arnaf ofn.
