Staying vigilant to protect local interests as new cables laid for Dinorwig

LAST week Siân Gwenllian, our Senedd Member, and I had a long meeting with senior people from the National Grid and the Station Manager of the Dinorwig power station.

They are laying new cables from Dinorwig to the Grid’s large transmission site at Pentir. This is part of the modernisation of the power station which hopefully will secure its future for many years to come. But the work has required temporary traffic lights in the area (at present five sets) as the cables have crossed roads.

The good news is that they are making progress. The project manager told us that they had never come across such hard rock (named ‘Padarn Tough’!) This has taken ten times more work to get through than normal. But this is now finished. They are also using horizontal drilling to get through some areas in order to avoid having to use open trenches. The fact remains though that there will be disruption to traffic for some time to come. We made sure that they understood how difficult this is proving to be, for example for local people trying to get to work.

Siân and I were very involved in the successful ‘Dim Peilonau’ campaign, when the Grid were planning to put pylons carrying electricity from the then planned Wylfa B nuclear power station across Menai and on to Pentir. Siân started the campaign with concerned local people. I was the Chair. Back then the Grid changed their plans and agreed to underground the cables under the Straits rather than use pylons. This time they are already undergrounding even though pylons would be much cheaper. But Siân and I will be equally vigilant to ensure that the interests of local people are taken properly into account as the essential work is done.

In Westminster this Monday we had a debate on the situation in Ukraine. It was a general debate – without a vote at the end. That is, it was neither a crucial matter of government business nor a challenging debate called by the official Labour opposition.

The situation in Ukraine could hardly be more serious. But such debates are usually quite humdrum with no fireworks. And certainly, one would not expect contributions from two former Prime Ministers. But this was Ukraine and now we have a handy selection of former Prime Ministers (do form an orderly queue please!).

So, Boris Johnson spoke, saying the sort of things Boris Johnson would say – I won’t trouble you with any detail. But this was really another step in his attempt at 1 an early comeback 2 making the present occupant of Number 10 look like a slight and inconsequential figure (as compared to the mighty glory that is Boris).

Liz Truss also spoke (or Elisabeth Truss as she is now rather grandly to be known apparently). This is also an early attempt at a comeback and is even more vacuous that that of B. Johnson. I’m told that she spoke with all the acquired grandeur of every one of her 46 days in office as Prime Minister, about setting up an ‘economic NATO’. That is an economic alliance across Europe that would be a bulwark to Russia etc. Now, do excuse me, but haven’t we left just such an alliance in a blaze of Brexit glory?

I have to confess that I left the Chamber as she got up to speak, having arrived very late courtesy of chaos on the trains and not having eaten. So, I had to access some emergency beans on toast – which trumped listening to Liz.

But her first few words would have caused me to abandon the Chamber anyway, being something like ‘When I was Foreign Secretary…’

Beware of ‘When I …’!

I’m not looking for votes as I am leaving this place at the next election. But I should note that my brief contribution to the debate was to call for a proper welcome for people fleeing from the Russian invasion – particularly the forthcoming Spring Offensive.

I was glad to have got in to say this. All previous speeches had been the usual high falutin’ foreign policy and military stuff that MPs of a certain kind so love.

Anyway, they all nodded sagely at my words and then got back to the good stuff.