New powers relating to water will be devolved to the Welsh Government under changes to the Wales Bill. Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said he would scrap his ability to block some laws made in Wales about water. He said the decision puts right a “long outstanding injustice” 50 years after the flooding of a Gwynedd village to create a reservoir to supply Liverpool. The Welsh Government said it had called for the devolution of these powers “for some time”, so welcomed the move. In 1965, the village of Capel Celyn was flooded to create the Tryweryn reservoir to provide Liverpool with water, under a law passed in 1956. Mr Cairns told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Wales programme the changes settled an injustice “where Wales was failed”. “Every secretary of state up until now has ducked this tough issue whereby water within Wales and England is inter-related” he said, saying intervention powers over water legislation were maintained “from Ron Davies to Peter Hain”. Click here to read more.
November 23, 2016