Cardiff City Region Questioned

Bevan Foundation Director Victoria Winckler has questioned some of the thinking behind the Cardiff City Region idea – speaking on BBC Radio Wales’s Wales at Work programme on 10th November, she said that although she welcomed the plans to electrify the south Wales Valleys Lines this must not be at the expense of investment in valleys towns or other forms of transport.  Responding to transport consultant Mark Barry, Victoria pointed out that more people lived in the valleys than in Cardiff, that there were more jobs in the valleys than in Cardiff, and that Cardiff had its own economic problems – including 17,000 unemployed people – that needed to be addressed.

 “A little investment in places such as Merthyr Tydfil, Ebbw Vale and Maesteg  would go a long way,” she commented, “and would make the idea of a city region more credible”.

Wales at Work 

For more on Victoria Winckler’s comments on the valleys and Cardiff visit our blog, Thisismytruth.

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