speech on sport

I attended an all boys secondary school in what is now a community first area where winter was football and rugby with the summer cricket and athletics.

It appears that as the breadth of opportunity to engage in different sports has increased participation levels have decreased.

It was a time when teenage obesity was caused by health problems as opposed to today where teenage obesity is causing health problems.

I want to discuss I detail five recommendations

The first is recommendation 5

Community sport and child poverty strategy.

Firstly can I commend Swansea Council for the number of multi game areas, football goalposts, basketball hoops, keep fit equipment  and skateboard areas made available.

The Council’s commitment to providing sports facilities for young people is an example to other local authorities across Wales.

I was fortunate enough to attend the launch of street sport in Blaenymaes last month.

For children living in community first areas the need is for sporting activities that are cost free.

I now want to discuss recommendation 8 on identifying ways to encourage girls to take part in sport.

It has been shown that the drop out rate from sport of teenage girls is much greater than boys.

I think that research is essential to find out why many teenage girls want to stop being involved in sporting activity and what can be done to encourage greater involvement in exercise.

My own expectation is that dance, Zumba and keep fit carried out in the school gym would interest more girls than outdoor activities.

We do however need to ask teenage girls in a way that will get the real reasons for lack of activity and what they would take part in.

Recommendation 9 asks for an assessment of the reduction in local government budgets on sport and leisure services and access.

As local government budgets are reduced and the increase in the cost of elderly care and children’s services continues then the pressure on non statutory services such as sport and leisure has increased.

Increasing the cost of sports facilities acts as barrier to children and younger people who are less well off and once activity stops it is very difficult to get people to start up again

I will reiterate a view I have previously expressed in that cutting back on leisure facilities and increasing their cost will lead to much higher costs for the health service in the future.

Recommendation 10 looks for opportunities to increase access to leisure facilities across Wales.

This gives me an opportunity to link two areas that I regularly raise: 3 and 4g pitches and invest to save.

I would urge the government to engage in discussions with local authorities regarding accessing invest to save to increase the number of 3 and 4 g pitches which reduce maintenance cost and are available for continual use.

The final recommendation I want to discuss is the review of free swimming.

I believe that a review of where take up is low is needed and whether it is caused by the opportunity to swim in the sea, cost of getting to the venues or whether there are other reasons.

I welcome the government’s positive response to the recommendation and I hope that we can increase activity and participation because if we do not both the economy and the health budget will suffer.

 

 

 

importance of pubs

The Public Houses and the chapels were the backbone of Welsh communities until the 1980s.

Since then we have seen the large scale closure of both.

In Morriston, where I live, in the last 5 years 6 pubs and 2 clubs have closed.

For TV fans programmes such as Coronation Street with the rovers return and Eastenders with the Queen Vic still use the pub as the focus for the commmunity

What we have seen in recent years is two different things happening

Firstly we have seen the growth of large pub chains and secondly we have seen the sale of cheap alcohol in supermarkets and other shops.

There have been two types of pub chain  the large pub companies who rent out pubs to licensees and the large managed pubs often in city centre locations where the serving of food is often more important than the serving of drink.

I am surprised the Conservatives have raised this as a debate today because the cause of the problem goes back to the time when we had the last majority Tory government.

For decades breweries had owned pubs and it was in their interest to sell their beer through their pubs.

Then one of the Friedman free market disciples decided that was bad for competition.

So the large breweries had to decide to be either brewers or pub owners. They all decided to remain brewers and the pubs were sold off to pub companies such as Punch Taverns, the 'pubco' that owns about one in eight British pubs and Enterprise Inns.

The breweries no longer had an economic reason to sell most of their beer through pubs.

In terms of distribution it became much easier to sell cans through supermarkets than barrels via pubs.

To quote CAMRA

“Around a third of pubs in the UK are owned by Pub Companies – large property companies who lease pubs out to tenants to run as their own business. These pubs are contractually obliged to buy their beer only from the Pubco; preventing pub licensees buying on the open market. This is known as the beer tie.

Why is this the case? The Pubco model.

Pubcos make huge excess profits by using the beer tie to force licensees and ultimately the consumer to pay high prices. Licensees can pay up to 50% more for beer than a free-of-tie publican. Alongside this pubco licensees often find themselves paying above market value rents and have no independent adjudicator to settle disputes.”

So publicans ended up tied to a supplier and paying more than some supermarkets and cash and carriers are selling drinks for but without the large breweries having any incentive to sell via them as opposed to supermarkets.

I am a regular visitor to pubs and clubs and first met my wife and my two best friends in Morriston pubs.

So what are the solutions

Camra calls for

a rebalance to the current unfair relationship between the giant property companies (pubcos) and their licensees. This rebalance must include an option for lessees to become free of tie, accompanied by an open market rent review, so that they can buy beer on the open market. This could potentially save each pub business tens of thousands of pounds every year.

Those who choose to remain tied should be given the opportunity to buy one real ale as a guest beer outside of any beer tie.

CAMRA is also calling for an independent adjudicator to be established which would have the power to carry out investigations and impose financial penalties; protecting thousands of licensees struggling to make a fair and sustainable living.

The "beer tie" is not in itself harmful and has been used for over a century by brewers to guarantee a market for the beer that they brew and works well for the small brewers who still own pubs.

Also we need a minimum alcohol price in order to deal with the huge price discrepancy between pubs and supermarkets and other shops selling alcohol.

Pubs are part of our heritage, provide opportunities to meet new people in a convivial and neutral setting.

Wales would be a lot poorer without them.

 

public toilets - meeting of cpg on ageing

AMs discuss public toilet access for older people in Wales

‘Lack of public toilets leaves older people feeling isolated’ – Mike Hedges AM

WELSH GOVERNMENT Members will be discussing the problem of older people accessing public toilets across Wales this Wednesday (7 May).

The Cross Party Group on Older People and Ageing is meeting just after midday (12.15pm) in conference room 24 at Tŷ Hywel in Cardiff Bay.

Commenting on the ‘Public toilets and new Public Health Bill’ debate, Mike Hedges AM, Chair of the Cross Party Group on Older People and Ageing, says:

“The new Public Health Bill clearly outlines a number of practical actions to address specific public health concerns. This includes improving access to toilets for public use.

“It’s my belief that in any civilized society older people should have easy access to public toilets in their community – this includes the number of toilets available and how accessible they are.  

“A lack of public toilets leaves older people feeling isolated as they choose to stay at home, rather than meeting with friends and family out in their community. 

“This week’s Cross Party Group meeting will give us the chance to discuss how we support older people in ensuring they have access to the right public services.

Graeme Francis, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Age Cymru, which support the Cross Party Group on Older People, comments:

“Public toilets are a lifeline for older people, providing them with freedom, independence and the confidence they need to lead fulfilling and active lives.

“Yet despite this, public toilets are disappearing from our communities at an alarming rate and assertive action is needed to halt this decline.

 “The Cross Party Group on Older People and Ageing will be exploring how we can do more in Wales to ensure that public toilets are kept accessible for older people”

Speaking at the meeting is John Vincent from the Welsh Senate of Older People who will be speaking about the ‘P is for People’ campaign.

He will give a presentation outlining the steps needed to ensure that public toilets are kept accessible to older people across Wales.

Members of the group will also have the opportunity to ask the guest speakers questions.