Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:22 pm on 19 June 2024.
Huw Irranca-Davies
Labour
2:22,
19 June 2024
Vikki, thank you for that question. In looking at some of the difficulties in judging the merits of bringing forward various things, we are clearly doing a tremendous amount through schemes such as Local Places for Nature, and these are particularly impactful, very much on local communities. I have seen them in my own area, and you will have seen them as well. Some of the ones within the Cynon Valley at the moment echo the ones with me.
I have been to see the ones in my own patch, for example, Ogmore Vale fire station, where they've worked with the local community to develop planting around a piece of semi-derelict land. Tremendous. It means that people can go and sit there now and, on raised beds, can take their children, enjoy the flowers, enjoy the scents—a proper multisensory experience as well. And it's the fire station and a piece of formerly derelict land.
In the Cynon Valley, I know that Abercynon fire station has got a starter package doing a similar wildlife initiative. Trivallis has been working on a wildlife garden. Cynon Valley Organic Adventures has got a package of sustainable drainage for nature that it is working on. St Winifred's Church is working on a pollinator garden, and there's so much more. Ysbyty Cwm Cynon is doing a butterfly garden. Aberdare primary school is doing an urban garden. Caradog Primary School is doing a wildlife initiative as well.
There are so many going on, and I would encourage all Members to look to their own community, and how a little bit of funding and a bit of collaborative partnership working on the ground, through the Local Places for Nature scheme, go a long, long way.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.