Minutes:
The
Leader of Council made the following statements to Council.
New
Parkway Station at Felindre
‘ What South West Wales needs is sustained medium to
long term investment in its rail and transport infrastructure, not a single new
station which would produce only marginal benefits on the basis of the
information available to us.
Welsh Government Ministers
have previously joined us in making clear that they would not support a
proposal which potentially takes Neath and other stations off the main line to
a significant extent. It is also difficult to see what the Felindre
proposal adds in terms of promoting footfall in our town and city centres or on
cutting east bound journey times by car and rail given the relatively recent
investment at the widely used Port Talbot Parkway station.
Councillor Jones added that
time and resources might be better spent concentrating on a new regional
transport project working with the Welsh Government and local authorities.’
Nuclear Waste
‘I shall be brief. There have
been a number of articles in the media this last week concerning public
meetings to be organised, apparently, by an agency of the Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority to consult on the possibility of sites being
identified for the disposal of nuclear waste.
I want to make it absolutely
crystal clear that Neath Port Talbot Council will not be engaging in this
process at any level.
The Welsh Government has made
it clear that they would only support such a proposal
if the community concerned was willing. Well, ours is not – and that is the end
of the matter.
Moreover, in the unlikely
event that a credible proposal emerged in any adjacent area, we would very
strongly oppose that also.’