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New climate secretary confirms ‘team Wales’ approach to pollution to continue

by Karma Loveday

Collaborative and cross-border working will feature as priorities as Wales works to address river pollution, the new Welsh Government secretary for climate change and rural affairs Huw Irranca-Davies told the Senedd last week.


Irranca-Davies was appointed to the role after new first minister, Vaughan Gething, shuffled the top team. Former climate secretary, Julie James, moved to housing, local government and planning.


Irranca-Davies dispelled suggestions that the system of multi-stakeholder river summits the Welsh Government has pursued would stop with the changes. “We are definitely continuing on that journey, because we see them as an imperative to bring people together and say, ‘What can we all do to actually deliver the water quality that we want?” he said. He will chair the next summit in July.


He expanded: “My politics are that I'm Labour and Co-operative— I stress that repeatedly. My approach to doing this stuff is that we all do it together or we don't do it at all… I've never been a great one for monikers like the phrase 'team Wales', but the Welsh way of doing things, so actually working together, so we don’t point fingers and just yell at each other, but we say the regulator has a role to play, the water companies have a role to play, the anglers’ clubs on the river have a role to play, the farmers and the landowners have a role to play, the builders have a role to play, and Government… all of us in there together rather than pointing fingers, and actually saying, ‘What’s your contribution? What’s yours?”


Irranca-Davies added that he plans to strengthen cross-border cooperation on top “because some of these catchments involve two governments, involve two water companies etc”.

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