Cyflwynwyd yr ymateb hwn i ymgynghoriad y Pwyllgor Biliau Diwygio ar Fil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau).

This response was submitted to the Reform Bill Committee consultation on the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill.

SCME157 Ymateb gan:  | Response from:  Wendy Fisher
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I have read through the information on this that you have published and
I feel that this is not the time for such wide sweeping changes.
In a time when so many are struggling with the additional costs of
living it seems foolish to proceed with what will be a very expensive
change, for no apparent advantage to the electorate.
The increase in numbers of AMs willl have so many aditional costs -  not
just the aditional salaries and expenses for the extra Members but the
additional salary costs for their staff and the proposed additional 2
Ministers and their departments, especially as you currently have a very
large budget deficit.  The Senedd currently has 60 members representing
approximately 3.1 million people, that is one AM per approx 52000
people, additional members do not mean that the population would be
better served.
The money that this will cost would be far better spent on resolving
some of the NHS problems countrywide enabling the people who are waiting
for treatment to receive it rather than being on long waiting lists, or
stuck waiting in an ambulance as there is no room in A&E to be seen. 
The long term health of the Welsh population is more important and needs
to be addressed urgently.

This is not a comment on any possible Westminter/Cardiff agreements or
disagreements, I am not commenting on this from a political viewpoint
but from a commonsense approach.  On this subject you should be looking
purely at the benefit, or otherwise, to the people who elect you, and
have to pay for the cost of the changes through their taxes.

Kind regards
Wendy Fisher