TODAY, Monday, marks 20 years since Wales voted to set up a devolved Welsh Assembly.

The vote on September 18 1997 saw voters back devolution by a tiny margin, with 50.3 per cent voting in favour of the proposal, compared to 49.7 per cent who opposed it.

Newport, Torfaen and Monmouthshire all voted against devolution, while voters in Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly backed the plan.

Reflecting on the past 20 years, veteran Newport West MP Paul Flynn, who campaigned in favour of devolution, said: "The Assembly is now embedded as a valued democratic institution that will grow in power and influence."

Laws passed in Wales over the past 20 years include being the first country in the UK to ban smoking inside and to introduce a 'soft opt-out' system for organ donation. Wales was also the first country in the UK to charge for carrier bags in 2011.

Newport East AM John Griffiths, who was among the first group of AM elected to the Senedd in the first election in 1999, said he believed devolution "has been very good for Wales, bringing power closer to our people".

"Our country has developed and grown in taking more responsibility for its own affairs and voting to do so in referendums," he said.

He added he would like to see more funding allocated to education and an increased focus on helping those with low incomes.

"As the Assembly continues to grow and develop it is ever more important that as many people as possible engage in our still relatively young new democracy in Wales," he said.

The Assembly's presiding officer Elin Jones said support for devolution has "grown significantly" in Wales since 1997.

"Our priority for the future is to ensure that we have a parliament that is well-equipped to represent the interests of Wales and its people, make laws for Wales and hold the Welsh Government to account, a parliament that is an equal of its counterparts across the UK," she said.

But a survey by the Wales Governance Centre released today, Monday, has shown, while support for devolution has remained relatively constant over the past 15 years, 65 per cent of people felt it had made no difference to Wales, and only 19 per cent believed it had led to improvements.

The study by the Cardiff University-based centre also showed 22 per cent felt devolution had hurt education, with 18 per cent saying it had improved as a result and 60 per cent saying it made no difference. And 32 per cent of respondents said they believed devolution of the health service had resulted in a decline in standards, while 18 per cent said it had a positive impact and 50 per cent said it had made no difference.

Commenting on the findings, professor Roger Scully of the Wales Governance Centre said: “This latest data strongly confirms the picture established in previous research - that devolution is the settled will of the Welsh people.

"But what we have been able to reveal is that we appear to have reached this point despite people being markedly unimpressed with the actual policy achievements of the last 20 years of devolved government."

Reflecting on the past 20 years, Welsh secretary Alun Cairns said "Devolution in Wales has come a long way over the 20 years since the referendum.

"The Senedd is now an established part of our constitutional landscape, taking critical decisions on matters that affect everyday lives."

The 1997 vote was the second time voters in Wales had been given the opportunity to set up their own devolved Assembly - a referendum in 1979 saw the proposal overwhelmingly defeated, with 79.74 per cent voting against the plan.

Another referendum in 2011 saw 63.49 per cent vote in favour of giving the Assembly more law-making powers.