REPRESENTING the Caerphilly community in the Senedd is the most important thing for MS Hefin David.

Mr David was re-elected with 46 per cent of the votes earlier this month to represent the constituency in the Welsh Senedd.

He believes that representing the community in the Senedd rather than the other way round is the way to be – and based his campaign and priorities on the concerns of his constituents.

The Labour MS was first elected in 2016 with 35.3 per cent of the votes and saw an increase of 10.7 per cent in this most recent election.

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Mr David says he will maintain an approachable presence throughout the term and wants people to contact him if they have any concerns or issues they would like his help with.

“I will be doing Facebook Live Q&As and want to be as contactable as I can," he said. "I am making sure I am a representative of the communities to the Welsh Government, not a representative of the Welsh Government to the communities. I want to be more accessible to people.

“I want to be there for people in the communities whether they support Labour or not. If people have concerns, please let me know.”

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His focus is on improving education, transport, the NHS and the community economy but wants constituents to get in touch with any concerns they have.

“The Government wants to see around 30 per cent of the workforce in Wales working from home and I think that we can benefit the town centres with ‘hot desks’ and I will be putting pressure for that,” Mr David told the Argus.

“One of the things my constituents raised was that they want more green spaces, not more housing on green spaces. I feel strongly that green spaces are very precious. I want to increase the number of green spaces including parks. I want the LDP (Local Development Plan) to consider green spaces and affordable housing in the next year or two.”

“I want to get a plan to improve rail and bus networks to connect the south east and I want to improve programmes for additional learning needs in schools.

“I want everyone to be able to build back and education must be a priority, not just in catching up what is missed but also in teaching our young people how to live in a post-pandemic world.”

He also wants to make sure there are opportunities for pupils who want to continue education but may not want to take A-levels. “If someone says they do not want to do A-levels, there needs to be other options," he said. "They should be able to further their education through other means like apprenticeships or vocational qualifications.

“They need to have these kinds of options.”

“We also need to make sure the health services are built back and I welcome the 17 million pounds given to the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board by the Welsh Government but this needs to be the start not the end of the support.”