8. What action is the Welsh Government taking to reduce air pollution levels in Cardiff? OQ56658

Thank you. Llywydd, under the local air quality management regime established through the Environment (Wales) Act 2016, local authorities have a duty to assess and manage public health risks stemming from air pollution. We have reviewed independent expert advice, and we have agreed a package of measures identified by Cardiff Council to ensure our compliance with nitrogen dioxide limits.

Thank you very much, First Minister. As you will be aware, on Clean Air Day, the Labour council in Cardiff reopened Castle Street in the heart of Cardiff, and the Deputy Minister for Climate Change described that as disappointing. Many Labour councillors in Cardiff have questioned the figures and the data used by the council. Every Member of this Senedd stood on a manifesto to promote a clean air Act, and pollution levels on Castle Street would be unlawful under that piece of legislation.

I know that it's difficult. There are complaints in Riverside, in Grangetown, and in Pontcanna about an increase in pollution levels. But, we must move people away from the use of private cars, and reopening a road isn't a solution to that. So, First Minister, could I urge you to please speak to Cardiff Council and to encourage them to consider this move and to close Castle Street once again to private vehicles? 

Well, I'm not going to do that, Llywydd. The choice that the council has made is a very difficult one. The plan that they are continuing with is the only plan that we agreed with them originally. That plan demonstrated that the figures could come back below what the law stipulates.

Llywydd, I don't disagree with what Rhys ab Owen said about the need for finding ways in which people do not need to use their cars. But, the closure of Castle Street did not simply lead to people leaving their cars at home. It led them to using their cars in other ways. It led them to using their cars to travel instead through some of the poorest parts of our city, where the air quality is already not what it needs to be.

So, my constituents in Ninian Park Road—a heavily congested road where, routinely in the summer, children are told not to go out and play outside because the quality of the air is not good enough to do so—found that the closure of Castle Street made their plight a good deal more difficult. The figures that the council have obtained, not from themselves but by independent analysts, show that the closure of Castle Street had that detrimental effect on residential streets in a way that Castle Street is not a residential street.

So, the choice facing the council was a genuinely challenging one. They have decided to revert to the plan originally agreed with the Welsh Government and that was funded by my colleague Lesley Griffiths at the time when she was responsible, to the tune of £19 million. It's not going back to four lanes of traffic in front of the castle. It's back to two lanes of traffic, as we had agreed, with bus and bike lanes added.

It will, for now, protect those people in those residential streets whose lives had been adversely impacted by the closure of Castle Street. That's the balance that the council has struck, and I think that, for me, until we are able to do longer term things to reduce the use of cars altogether, it is a balance that is entirely defensible.  

Thank you, First Minister.