Editor

The Senedd elections are fast approaching - they are to be held on6 May - and the parties are busy making their preparations.

We sometimes forget that many issues which disturb us are the responsibility of local councils, yet we blame, wrongly, the Welsh Government.

For example, if Gwynedd’s Plaid Council did its duty of providing beach patrols, controlling traffic flow and encouraging properly treated tourists, its berating of the Welsh Government would be revealed as empty, misguided and mere political pettiness.

We therefore need Senedd members who are prepared to criticise councils when they fall down on their duty.

Sadly Dwyfor Meirionnydd’s Senedd member has continued to refuse to criticise our Plaid council, no matter how badly they perform - even though he is deputy minister for tourism.

He has not joined Welsh Labour but he has taken a job in the Welsh Labour government that would welcome his speaking out against Gwynedd’s Plaid council. Equally, Liz Saville Roberts has failed to criticise the council.

We are thus forced into a kind of limbo here in Gwynedd’s Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency. We need a Senedd member, a Welsh Labour member, who is prepared to put the council’s feet to the fire when they fail, as they currently have, to protect the interests of our important tourism industry. We need Welsh Labour Party members as ministers for tourism.

The extra Labour seat in Cardiff would give the people of Dwyfor Meirionnydd an MS paying undivided attention to their interests,and the Welsh people a majority government freed from the machinations of idiosyncratic, independent,minor party politicians.

If ever Wales needed a government speaking with a single clear voice it is now, as we fight for proper post-Brexit funding here in agriculture, tourism, health and welfare services, and catch-up spending for Covid-19 costs and neglected climate catastrophe remedies, and investment to make good the legacy of Tory austerity.

The Welsh Labour government needs that unambiguous unity in order effectively to demand of the negligent Tory Westminster government that it meet its obligations to Wales in all those matters.

Mac MacIntyre Flat 6 Shelbourne Court,Barmouth

Have your say on the local issues affecting you - email [email protected] or join in the conversation on our Facebook page