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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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Tory vision of prosperity is Cardiff-centric says AM
November 23, 2006 11:29 PM
Peter Black being interviewed in Cardiff Bay
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has hit out at the recent speech from Tory Assembly Leader, Nick Bourne, to the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce in which he argued that investment in Cardiff would lead to the development of Wales as a whole.
Amongst the proposals being put forward by the Tories are that the Assembly should invest in a new access road from Cardiff City Centre to the airport, a new link road from eastwards from Cardiff Bay to the M4 and a National Art Gallery to be situated in the City.
"This additional investment in the capital city would amount to tens of millions of pounds of public money when all the evidence is that Cardiff is already getting more than its fair share of public funding," said Mr. Black. "No-one is suggesting that Cardiff should sacrifice potential economic growth, but to claim that such growth will lead to prosperity for Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot and Swansea, let alone the rest of the country, is naïve."
"The idea that wealth will magically spread westwards through some sort of 'trickle-down' effect is nonsense. There has been no evidence that such a phenomenon is in place so far and no reason to think that it will be in the future. If the Tories are serious about creating prosperity in the rest of Wales then they need to advocate direct investment in infrastructure, skills and in incentivising business outside of the capital. A Cardiff-centric strategy is just more of the same and it has already failed the rest of the Wales."
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