Debate Night Success at the West Wales Chronicle

Proceedings opened at Stebonheath Football Club in Llanell in which local Welsh Assembly Candidates were introduced to a strong crowd by the evening’s Chair Becca Rosenthal.

Making up the panel were Stefan Ryszewski (Welsh Conservatives), Lee Waters (Welsh Labour Party), William Powell (Liberal Democrats), Helen Mary Jones (Plaid Cymru) and Ken Rees (UKIP), apologies were sent by the Green party candidate Guy Martin Smith who was unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances.

The chair gave each panel member a couple of minutes to introduce themselves and their campaign pledges to the audience, before answering questions submitted via the West Wales Chronicle website and social media.

 

Liberal Democrats

William Powell (Liberal Democrats) began by explaining that he was standing in for local electoral candidate Gemma Jane Bowker who couldn’t attend the event as she’s recently had a baby, before stating that if elected a Lib Dem assembly member would put more money into hospitals and education, promising that a Lib Dem government in Wales would reduce class sizes for all children to no more than 25 children.

 

People First

Sian Ciach (People First), explained to the audience that before entering politics that she used to be a Doctor who worked in the NHS as a doctor.  Whilst working in the NHS she uncovered the existence of a private practice scam that her colleagues were participating in and having brought this to the attention of the authorities found herself without a job, a fate common to most whistleblowers.

Sian was also highly critical of some past decisions made by Carmarthenshire County Council and stated that her party was different to the others in the sense that they would always ask the public for their opinions on any important issue.  

Traditionally political parties tend to make decisions that they think are in the best interests of people within their constituencies, People First would turn this around and ask the people for their views and make a decision based on what the people actually want instead.  This system which is based upon the work of Martin Bell would stop the abuses of our public services that occur via vested self interest.

 

Plaid Cymru

Helen Mary Jones explained her background as a former Welsh Assembly Member now seeking re-election.  Helen explained that she was proud of her record in office and the things she’d done since the 2011 election, having had a positive impact on the lives of over 5000  people by helping them with their problems but there was still more to be done.

Helen stated that her background and her achievements were a matter of public record, detailing her political and youth work stating that she was ready and willing to continue her work within Plaid Cymru to bring jobs and prosperity to all of the people of Wales and that the people of Wales were held back by lack of opportunities which made them unable to exercise the entrepreneurial spirit that Wales needed to begin a more dynamic and prosperous society.

 

UKIP

Local candidate Ken Rees began by explaining that he was born within the borough of Llanelli in Tumble, having moved to the town at the age of 6.  

Ken also explained to the audience that he’d had a long history of serving the public in a variety of means such as being a member of the old Dyfed County Council and more recently Carmarthenshire County Council.

Ken is a former steelworker and expressed his concern for all workers in the stricken Tata Steel plant.  In addition to the actual steel workers, he explained there’s also the Steel Pensioners that need to be considered in any sort of deal done to save the plant.

Ken explained that a 25% stake in the plant held by the government would lead to a 20% drop in pensions for Steel Pensioners and that this is something that needs to be guarded against and that UKIP would fight to protect the pensions of former steel workers.  

Ken also stated that if elected UKIP would speak up for Prince Philip Hospital in order to protect this important asset to the town which had an excellent CDU (Clinical Decision Unit) and that his fundraising work along with other local people had successfully fundraised the money needed to buy a prostate biopsy machine, stating ‘that you don’t know how important that is until you need it.’

 

Welsh Conservatives.

Stefan Ryszewski was noticeably the youngest member of the panel and explained to the audience that he decided to enter politics when struck by the apathy of younger people’s political engagement.

The best way to fight that was to get involved he decided which is where his political career began.

Stefan stated that a Welsh Conservative party would create a stable business climate in Wales designed to help businesses grow, a better economy results in more taxes that can be used to pay for better public services, reversing the ‘managed decline’ we’d seen under Welsh Labour and the mismanagement of the Welsh National Health Service.

Stefan reiterated several times that he highly admired the staff working within the health service but was critical of the way that it had been managed most notably by Welsh Labour.

Stefan stated that he’d passionately argue the case for more youth engagement in politics and that he’d like to see more money channeled into raising the profile of politics amongst younger people.

 

Welsh Labour Party

Lee Waters representing the Welsh Labour Party then took to the stand to state that he was fed up with the status quo and that only a labour government in Wales could bring an real change to Llanelli.

Lee explained his political background such as working as an assistant for the former First Minister Ron Davies during his famous moment of madness back in 1998, the resulting work pressure and fallout from that incident nearly put him off politics for life.

Lee also explained aspects of his past as a journalist and a charity worker becoming head of the Sustrans charity which promotes sustainable, healthier, cleaner transport within the UK.

Lee also stated that everyone tends to look back 30 years to the old days seeing only the loss yet no one looks forward 30 years to see what we can have.  Lee is determined to reverse the brain and talent drain of people leaving Wales to work in England or further afield so that they can benefit the communities in which they were raised, reiterating the positive message that good things can come to Llanelli.

 

Reader’s Questions.

With the introductions out of the way with Becca began by reading out our reader’s questions to the panel asking them all to answer one by one.

 

Mental Health.

Q1. It is my experience that people are waiting three years for talking therapy after a serious attempt to take their own life. People are also being cuffed and placed in cells overnight due to lack of GP support when the police request it. My question is, what will you and your parties do to improve this and ensure everybody gets appropriate and faster mental health care when they need it most?

 

Stefan Ryszewski was first to answer by stating that he’d like to see a 28 day target on all forms of talking therapy within the NHS, so that a person suffering from a mental health condition can be seen quickly and begin their treatment as soon as possible.  If elected he’d do all that he could to promote the Welsh Conservative agenda of having a dedicated mental health team within every Accident and Emergency department in Welsh hospitals.  

 

Stefan also stated that he’d like to see more promotion of mindfulness techniques to the general public as a way of lessening the mental health burden on the NHS.

Sian Ciach answered the question by explaining the highly disorganised nature of mental health services within the NHS, that there is no current joined up strategy for this citing an example of competing hospitals and health authorities all having separate heads of departments to do the same job as none of them would talk too or communicate with each other.  

Sian drew on her medical experience to state that there was an acute lack of psychiatrists within the NHS and that some counties do better than others, stating that the police really are in the front line when it comes to mental health issues.  Bridgend (South Wales Police) for example was excellent for always having a psychiatrist on hand to assist the police by talking to mental health sufferers who might be a danger to themselves or others.

People first would seek to reorganise mental health services to address these key points of lack of coherent organisation and sharing of resources and personnel.

Lee Waters stated that there was no easy answers and that great progress had been made to remove the effects of stigma around mental health issues citing the Time to Change campaign.  Lee stated that Wales must do more to keep well and that there was a shortage of skilled clinicians, that progress must be made to attract and to keep the right people in Wales who are qualified to help people who may be suffering with mental health issues.

William Powell agreed with the comments so far stating that the Lib Dems when working in Coalition with the Conservative Party did more to remove the stigma surrounding mental health issues than any other government before them.  William stated that he’d like to see more investment in mental health services, particularly for Veterans suffering with post traumatic stress disorder.

Helen Mary Jones stated that Plaid Cymru would ring fence mental health budget in order to ensure consistency of services across wales for mental health sufferers, stating that she’d always been a strong advocate for people with mental health conditions.

Helen agreed that adult social services could be improved but also emphasised that Child Services also need to be better integrated into an overall mental health framework as young people with mental health conditions can be left high and dry without support as soon as they turn 18.  If selected she would be a strong and vocal supporter for people that need better mental health services.

Ken Rees finished the first round of questions by stating that he agreed with everything that had been said on the panel that there was no dissent here and that ‘we could all vote together on this’.

 

Prince Phillip Hospital.

Q2.Prince Phillip Hospital has recently seen the opening of the purpose built Acute Medical Assessment Unit, which has so far been hailed a success. The battle to retain a fully functioning Accident and Emergency in Llanelli has been a long and ongoing battle for campaigners and supporters alike. If you were elected as our Assembly member, what will you do to ensure that Prince Philip Hospital has a fully functioning Accident and Emergency unit?

 

Unsurprisingly Sian Ciach was very strong on medical issues drawing from her extensive experience as a doctor.  Sian stated that lots of services have gone from the hospital, that a fully functioning A&E department would depend upon to keep working.

Sian explained that when health authorities merge as was the case with the creation of the Hywell Dda authority it’s always the case that the larger authority tends to swallow up the smaller authorities.

The resulting bad decisions from this are not made by politicians but by unelected heads of department and members of health boards that call the shots.

Sian explained that replacing A&E services at Llanelli was a huge problem that would take more than 1 term in government to fix as the hospital has slowly been gutted of the essential departments needed to keep an A&E open and that to fix this would require massive amounts of investment and structural change to the hospital, which she fears is slowly being closed by stealth.  In the future it may be difficult to keep the hospital at all, let alone a local accident department.

 

Helen Mary Jones, began by stating that you can’t turn the clock back but the situation can be improved by removing bureaucracy, citing the example that there’s currently 7 health boards across wales, when merging them into 1 would obviously be much better, as resources could be shared and duplication of services minimised.

Helen explained that her party’s plans were fully costed and if implemented would see more doctors and nurses in Wales as they could reduce student fees to be paid off completely after five years.

 

Stefan Ryszewski promised that there would be no reorganisation of the NHS in Wales and that the Welsh Conservatives would seek to reopen A&E departments in Wales that have closed, as well as create more training facilities in Wales for doctors and nurses.

Stefan criticised the Labour administration for the managed decline of NHS services in Wales stating that the Welsh Conservatives would see more joined up services coming to Wales shared between different hospitals and health authorities for maximum efficiency.

Stefan also stated that the Welsh Conservatives would also look at consultants pay and contracts citing the example of a consultant that was struck of the medical register but still receiving a 200k payout in the following year despite not working in his position.

Ken Rees stated that the health service could be improved with the addition of answerable directors, electable boards and NHS Commissioner that depend upon the public for their jobs.  Ken also stated that you can’t have every service in every hospital so cooperation between hospitals and authorities within the NHS is the key to good provision within the health service.

 

Lee Waters Stated that the NHS is under huge strain, there’s not not enough doctors and nurses to go around and that structural change is needed within the system and that the system should meet the needs of the people as opposed to the people meeting the needs of the system.

Lee was highly critical of both the Tories and Plaid’s plans to change the NHS stating that it will be a hell of a battle to keep the NHS as we know it.

At that moment a lady in the crowd interjected to ask the chair to force the panelist to answer the question that was specific to Prince Philip Hospital.  The lady was critical of the panelists that she claimed were answering the question in their own way and not giving a proper answer to the specific question.  A point refuted by the chair who stated that the panelists were able to answer the question in their own way.

 

William Powell interjected stating that fixing the situation at Prince Philip was very unlikely given the present circumstances and that the UKIP position of having an elected Health Commissioner would not work, citing the example of the Dyfed Powys Police commissioner removing the force’s own helicopter from the county to save money.

 

Also he warned that should the UK decide to leave the European Union in the upcoming June referendum that a Brexit would deal fatal damage to the NHS that no amount of planning or restructuring could save.

Gender Equality

Q3.Despite the UK adopting the Equality Act 2010, there is still a serious issue of gender equality. The gender pay gap is still a major issue, and even a recent report by the Electoral Reform Society Cymru has reported that women are far more likely to be fighting vulnerable seats whilst men are more likely to fight safe ones. If elected as Assembly member, what will you do to address this?

 

On the subject of Gender Equality, Helen Mary Jones said that there was a very clear need for affirmative and positive action and that whilst elements of this have been addressed by previous governments both Nationally and at the Welsh Assembly the current legislation doesn’t go quite far enough.  There had been steps in the right direction but more needed to be done and that for her Gender Equality was a very high priority indeed.

 

Ken Rees called for a coalition on positive discrimination before stating that his position was one of having the best person for the job regardless of gender.

 

William Powell then stated that the Liberal Democrats were an example of a party within Wales that was led by strong and capable women and that he’d like to see more done to advocate the rights not just of women generally but also for members of the LGBT community.

 

Lee Waters stated that he wanted a voice for Wales, not a voice for males, before criticising Ken Rees and UKIP for not supporting gender equality.  Lee went on to state that he was proud of his party’s record as Welsh Labour had brought into law the Violence against Women act in 2015 which improves the public sector response in Wales to violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence.

 

Sian Ciach stated that this was still a huge issue drawing on her experience of working within the health service and being content on her pay grade only to find out that other consultants within the health service had demanded more money for essentially the same work.  She noted that men tend to demand more money but women tend to be more contented with their positions and pay citing this as a cause of the unlevel playing field that women find themselves to be in the world of work.

 

Stefan Ryszewski, echoed Ken Ree’s sentiment that we should have the best person for the best job regardless of gender with their ability being determined on competence.  Stefan’s position was that people see through gender to reveal the competence of the person underneath and would value that person based on this competence accordingly.

 

Llanelli Town

Q4. Llanelli as a town is now almost on the extinct list despite the Eastern Gateway development. Serious investment is required within the town centre. Out of town developments have their place but these should not be at the detriment of the town. What will you bring to the table and how will you ensure that Llanelli becomes a town that its people can once again take pride in visiting?

 

Stefan Ryszewski was first up stating that decline in the town centre could easily be halted with free car parking to level the playing field and that the Welsh Conservative party had a plan to abolish business rates up to £12,000 per year which would help smaller businesses enormously and help revive the town centre as well as help smaller businesses compete with online suppliers that didn’t have the same costs as bricks and mortar businesses located in our town centre.

 

Helen Mary Jones pointed out that the town centre was often the victim of clashing initiatives designed to help one part of it but at the expense of another, so greater integration between the various initiatives was needed which would result in a more structured and better plan for Llanelli in the long term.

 

Helen said that she would like to see the local authority purchase some of the older shops that once belonged to bigger businesses and subdivide them into smaller shops that would benefit the local people.  Helen also said that these larger buildings often had storerooms above which could be turned into flats and living spaces for people which would partially address the housing shortage and to do so would be to put potential customers near the stores that needed their custom.

 

It was an example of joined up thinking that would go a long way to revitalising the town centre and that flats above shops must stay high on the agenda.

 

Lee Waters stated that Parc Trostre was a backward step for the area, stating that local land had been sold off to make the development which ultimately benefited far off tax havens and hedge fund managers.

 

Lee also stated that the Stadium (Parc Y Scarlets)  was a white elephant as it could not be funded.  Part of the issue around free parking for Llanelli could be settled with a small tax on these out of town developments (that Lee remarked always kill a town centre) to pay for free parking within the town centre and a shuttle service taking people back and fore between the new shops and town centre.  

Lee’s main point was that there was no such thing as free parking, someone has to pay the parking and this proposal of an out of town levy was a fair solution to the problem of town centre decline.

 

William Powell of the Liberal Democrat party stated that he also supported above the shop living and that whilst he agreed with a lot of what had already been said he suggested that it was high time that the Train station in Llanelli had some real investment to make it into an attractive gateway into Llanelli Town Centre.  

 

William stated that whilst the cafe in the station is very nice and does a good job of offering refreshments to visitors it was let down by the station which deserved a considerable investment which could only serve to make the town more attractive to visitors.

 

Sian Ciach stated that the decline of the town centre was a disaster and that the county council had given away the land and the grants associated with it as a direct result of faulty business thinking and a terrible business plan in which it was thought that visitors to the out of town shopping developments would encourage people to visit the town.  

 

It was thought that visitors would see the ‘big sign’ on the roundabout encouraging them to go and have a look at Llanelli Town.  Once there at the theatre or having a bite to eat at Nando’s they might then decide to stroll into the town centre to see what was going on and as such spend some money in the stores there.

 

Sian said that this type of thinking is clearly madness and that we all need to be more critical of Carmarthenshire County Council and local politicians for allowing this type of thing to go on.  

 

Sian stated that whilst she had some sympathy for the Plaid position of above the shop living that she couldn’t envisage this happening and that Plaid were ‘impotent.’

 

Ken Rees, stated that he was one of a number of people that said yes to the Eastgate development and that it has done good things for Llanelli.  Ken stated that he wanted to see fair and proper business rates for traders in the town centre as some of them were being charged too much to operate in the town centre.

 

Ken then stated that he’d like to see concessionary short stay parking available in the town for people to be able to pop in and buy one or two items or visit the bank and other short duration shopping tasks.  This would go a long way to revitalising the town centre as well if combined with staged events, festivals and street performers that would turn the town into it’s own attraction.

 

Help for smaller businesses.

The final question of the night concerned small businesses and SME’s in Wales (Small to Medium Enterprises).

 

Q.5. Whilst there are thousands of SMEs (Small & Medium Enterprises) in Wales, it does appear that much larger companies get more help in terms of advice and support, funding and sustainability measures. Helping SMEs to employ at least one person would  make a huge dent in our unemployment figures and would support small businesses to grow. If elected, what will you be doing to support the growth of small businesses in Wales?

 

Lee Waters began by stating that in Wales we have lots of businesses but we have a missing tranche of medium sized businesses .  Whilst we have lots of small businesses and some very large companies we don’t seem to do well at turning the very small ones into the larger firms that can employ more people.

 

Lee ended his statement saying that whatever we do we can’t give up on this or adopt a position of this problem is too difficult to fix, we can do it.

 

William Powell echoed the sentiment of Lee Waters by saying that it makes sense to support local companies that are committed to the town as opposed to the bigger companies that will leave when the going gets tough.  

 

William listed local firm Jenkins Bakery as a model of success that other businesses should adopt, citing their expansion from a small firm to one that now has lots of outlets around the town and around the wider county.  

 

Willaim also stated that we should value vocational qualifications more and learn from the people of Germany who have managed to do this successfully.

 

Helen Mary Jones then said that Lee Waters dismally failed to develop jobs in the area, and that there was a very clear need to grow business support within the area in terms of training and help with marketing their products and services.

 

Helen said that Plaid could do this easily by not funding the 1 billion pound bypass in Newport.  Helen said that they would use other roads and routes to alleviate the pressure for considerably less cost saving £600,000.  This money could be set aside to help smaller companies grow into larger ones which would benefit everyone in Wales.

 

Sian Ciach’s response was that we should grow our own business as rural regions far from places like Cardiff were always the last in the queue for any sort of funding or investment.  

 

Sian also stated that in addition to supporting apprenticeships that businesses could be helped if wages were raised and that apprentices shouldn’t be on pathetic wages.  In Wales we need to match the right skills for the right jobs and that if elected she would seek to do that.

 

Stefan Ryszewski stated that the situation could be helped by increasing taxes on the bigger businesses in order to reduce the burden of taxation on the smaller businesses.  

 

He also stated that small businesses should be given better access to procurement so that they can have an increased chance of securing government contracts and if elected he’d seek to set up a small business hub with the intention of scrutinising policy so that smaller businesses would not be unduly affected by the introduction of new rules or changes in the business climate.

 

The final statement of the night came from UKIP’s Ken Rees who stated that small businesses were the backbone of the UK economy employing far more people than all of the bigger businesses combined.

 

Ken stated that he’d like to see an incremental taxation on businesses based on turnover so that smaller businesses are taxed less than bigger businesses as well as assisting smaller companies with grants and advice.

 

Ken also stated that he’d like to see the return of proper apprenticeships of 4 to 5 year terms in which apprentices worked for many different companies to learn their trade, before closing the night by stating firmly that UKIP will support SME’s.

 

All in all the candidates performed well on the night, though judging by the crowd’s reaction it seems that Helen Mary Jones and Lee Waters had the most support at the end of the evening.  

 

Throughout the debate William Powell did an excellent job explaining his party position on the questions asked, whilst Sian Ciach came across as being very sincere, drawing a lot from her own true life experiences as did Ken Rees who has had a long and distinguished career serving the people of Llanelli and Carmarthenshire.  

 

Stefan Ryszewski showed great enthusiasm and professional delivery and is sure to be a rising star in political circles and undoubtedly has a future in politics not just in the Welsh Assembly but I’m sure we’ll see him in Westminster some time soon.

 

Mark Bridgeman