Welsh screen icon Michael Sheen today called for a fairer, more sustainable Wales while speaking at an event in Cardiff.
Mr Sheen was speaking at Cardiff’s Millennium Centre as part of the launch of a consultation period for the Future Generations Bill, which aims to address sustainable development issues in Wales.
The consultation period, dubbed a “National Conversation”, aims to find out what long-term aims people in Wales want the Welsh Government to address by 2050. The goals that they agree on will be included in The Future Generations Bill, which is expected to come into effect in 2015.
Mr Sheen, who is an outspoken supporter of UNICEF UK, praised work done by the Welsh Government in pushing for more equal opportunities, but reminded people that things were becoming ever more difficult for young people in deprived parts of Wales.
“There’s no drama department in my school any more,” he said, referencing his own route to success from his home town of Port Talbot.
“The access that young people had when I was young has been severely restricted,” he added. “I passionately hope that the Future Generations Bill takes that into account.
Jeff Cuthbert AM, the Welsh Government’s Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty, set out the preliminary goals for the bill, which include making “Wales a more equal nation”, helping Welsh people to participate with a “thriving Welsh language” and making sure that people in Wales were healthy.
As well as this, Mr Cuthbert made it clear that the new bill would place an emphasis upon making Wales a more prosperous nation and one that used the nation’s resources more fairly.
The Welsh Government would, he said, put “sustainable Development at the heart of our public services”, and would appoint a Commissioner for Sustainable Futures, who will present a final report to the Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty by March 2015.
