Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:26 pm on 11 June 2024.
I represent many people who don't have a car and they rely on public transport to get them to their local shops, so they're particularly vulnerable to not being able to get hold of the things that they need just for their weekly shops. I think this is really key to people's well-being, because of course people can buy things online, particularly predictable things like heavy goods, tinned goods, but it cuts out all the interaction—the incidental interaction that takes place when you meet your neighbours in the streets—and I just think this is such an important issue. If fresh food isn't available locally, home delivery is some sort of an option, but it doesn't enable you to choose the things that are best value or the things that are on sale if it's a clothing item. So, how does placemaking fit into the Welsh Government priorities here to strengthen the emotional as well as the economic resilience of communities, celebrating local skills and local businesses to ensure that the profits stay in that community, as opposed to being some huge multinational and all the profits going elsewhere?