My Lords, Amendment 54 stands in my name and that of the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Ely. I will also speak to Amendments 103, 105 and 107A, which also stand in my name and are grouped with my lead amendment. Some of them also stand in the name of my noble friend Lord Elystan-Morgan and the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson. I am grateful to these and other colleagues for their support in this matter.
The Committee today has an opportunity to put right a great historic wrong which has been the subject of much misgiving and dismay for a period of half a century and more. It concerns the drowning of valleys in Wales, usually with the compulsory eviction of farmers from their homes and land, sometimes with the destruction of whole villages and rural communities. I hope that in this matter I am knocking on an open door.
It would be stupid to assert that we should never construct reservoirs to supply water for domestic or industrial purposes, or to control the flow of water in our rivers. Some such projects have of course been built to supply water to our own conurbations in Wales, while some have been to provide water for English cities such as Birmingham. Some have been undertaken with the acquiescence of local people and with reservoirs so located that they do not cause massive disruption. Some projects have been handled with sensitivity and common sense, sometimes the reservoirs have helped to avoid flooding in Wales, as well as down river in England, and adequate compensation has been provided to those affected. But there have been other projects which have, to say the least, been handled in a cack-handed manner and, at worst, have ridden roughshod over local communities and their interests.
The best known of these, with the greatest ill repute, was the Tryweryn valley case, about which I shall say more in a moment—but it was not the first. The drowning of Llanwddyn and the valley in which the village was located to create Llyn Efyrnwy, the Vyrnwy reservoir, in the 1880s was probably the first to generate rancour. The poet Cynan, later Archdruid of Wales, wrote Balaad Dyffryn Ceiriog, which sums up the deep feelings. With noble Lords’ permission I shall quote just one verse in the original Welsh:
“Beth waeth fod dychryn dan fy ais?
Beth waeth fod deigryn ar fy ngrudd?
Wrth synfyfyrio ar y trais
A llwytho ‘nodrefn? Daeth y dydd
I ffoi o flaen y llid a fydd.
Pwy ydym ni, i gadw stwr?
Ffarmwr neu ddau, a gof a chrydd,
Cleddwch ein cartref dan y dwr”.
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That loosely translates—and please forgive the emotion which I still feel in these verses—as:
“What if tears blur my eyes?
What if anguish fills my heart?
Wondering where our future lies,
Loading our chattels in the cart;
To flee before the waters start.
Who are we to make a stand?
We few poor farmers, now depart,
So take our homes and drown our land”.
A generation later in the 1950s, the saga moved on to the Tryweryn valley in the former county of Meirionnydd. We all know the story: the Corporation of Liverpool needed a new supply of industrial water. It considered locations in the north-west of England but recoiled in the face of strong local opposition. It identified the Tryweryn valley and determined that it would acquire it, drowning the village of Capel Celyn and numerous farms and homesteads. There was virtually unanimous opposition in Wales. When it came to Liverpool needing an Act of Parliament to facilitate its vandalism, it got its Bill through in another place despite every Welsh MP but one across the political spectrum opposing it. Westminster democracy worked for Liverpool that evening, but it did not work for Wales.
That, along with the strong feelings about language rights and economic marginalisation, led to a large cross-section of my generation resolving that never again would this be allowed to happen. If we could not trust Westminster to safeguard our communities, we had no choice but to seek our own Parliament that would defend our villages, our countryside, our heritage, our land and our way of life. Tryweryn was the catalyst that politicised many young people in Wales in the 1960s; indeed, it had a direct effect on the mobilising of the SNP in Scotland as well. The arrogant way in which Westminster treated the Tryweryn episode still has repercussions along the corridors of Westminster, and there are most assuredly lessons that can and must be learned from this sad episode. Little wonder that another Welsh poet of international renown, RS Thomas, writing in English, said:
“There are places in Wales I don’t go;
Reservoirs, that are the subconscious
Of a people, troubled far down
With gravestones, chapels, villages, even”.
It is right that the Committee should be aware of this background to my amendments today. Their purpose is twofold. Amendments 54 and 105 would put into the hands of the National Assembly the full power to authorise or reject any proposal for the construction of new reservoirs in Wales. If they are agreed, as I hope they will be, there will be no doubt that another Tryweryn could not occur. The authority over such far-reaching matters should be in the hands of Welsh elected representatives in our own Parliament, on our own soil.
Amendment 103 would bring into the control of the National Assembly all aspects of water management within Wales, and would make the assembly’s authority over water resources to be coterminous with the borders of Wales. The Silk commission recommended aligning the boundary for legislative competence for water with
the national boundary. This would effectively end the regulation of the industry in Wales on a “wholly or “mainly” basis.
Clearly those responsible for the various aspects of water management and control will need to work in close co-operation with colleagues in England where there are cross-border flows. There is no earthly reason why such co-operation should not be happily handled. Water flows over the borders between many countries, but never has that been regarded as a fundamental reason why the borders of a country should be compromised in homage to some hydrographic principle that has never appeared in any constitutional handbook.
Amendment 107A is closely linked to the other amendments and is essential to the process of devolving control over our natural resources. It would remove any veto that the Secretary of State has over any Acts or measures of the National Assembly that might have a serious adverse impact on water quality or supply in England. Without this amendment, the others would be ineffective because the Secretary of State could intervene at any point he might choose.
I am glad that there are Members in the National Assembly and at Westminster, of all parties and of none, who have supported the proposals before the House today. I do not bring this forward as a party-political initiative. I am aware that the Secretary of State announced yesterday that he will be amending the Bill at a later stage to address some of the issues that I have outlined today, and to remove the UK Government’s historic right to intervene on water-related issues. I very much welcome that announcement and look forward to reading the amendments he is proposing in more detail. If the Government’s amendments meet my objectives and those of my noble friends, I am sure that there will be an unmitigated welcome across Wales and in all parties. A historic wrong will be put right, and that is something in which we should all rejoice. I beg to move.