The First Minister said there’s a lot to celebrate about mid-Wales despite ongoing threats to schools, hospital units and leisure centres.

This week the Cambrian News sat down with Eluned Morgan during her visit to Lampeter.

The topics on the table included “the hope” that was needed to combat the rise in right-wing politics, why stroke services were proposed to be pulled away from Bronglais hospital, and the future of the University of Wales Trinity St David’s Lampeter campus.

Sitting down at Mustard Seed Cafe after opening Felinfach’s new Ysgol Dyffryn Aeron, the First Minister sipped from a cup of tea whilst explaining that though mid-Wales may feel forgotten about, “for the first time since the establishment of the Senedd, we have a First Minister who actually represents mid-Wales”.

Though she grew up in Ely, Cardiff, she explained: “I’ve represented mid and west Wales for 25 years, first as a member of European parliament.

“I’m a champion for rural areas - one of the first things I did as soon as I came to the Senedd was to write a rural economic development plan and what’s good is how much has been enacted.”

She named Aberystwyth’s Old College redevelopment, the “massive investment” in flood protection in Aberaeron and the new health centre as Cardigan as part of the multitude of things that we “probably don’t celebrate as much as we should”.

When questioned about the continued cuts to services in mid-Wales, from bus routes in south Gwynedd to the leisure centre in Machynlleth earmarked for closure, the four village primary schools in Ceredigion under threat and Ysgol Tal-y-Bont reducing its class numbers, Baroness Morgan said: “Firstly, local authorities in Wales have done much much better than local authorities in England who have seen cuts, and cuts, and cuts.

“We’ve supported local authorities over decades despite austerity.

“Over many years we’ve said to Westminster that local authorities are on the front line and need additional support.

“This year again they’ve just received significantly more money, in fact I was just with the Chief Executive and leader of Ceredigion County Council who were saying thank you for the uplift they’ve been given - so I don’t think it’s fair to say there’s been cuts.

“They always want more money, they always need more money, but I’ve also just come from visiting farmers who say they need more money as well as the tourism sector, as well as school and hospitals - everybody needs more money.

“Our job in government is to determine where and who should have it.

“Obviously councils are dealing with inflationary pressures like all of us - I get that’s an issue, but they’re still supporting thousands and thousands of people in their communities and people take things for granted in Wales.

“It’s one thing I find really frustrating.

“People just accept free prescriptions - you don’t get that in England.

“In Wales when it comes to paying for care, you won’t pay more than £100 a week if you’re at home - there’s no cap in England.

“In Wales we have free bus passes for those over 60.

“People take for granted all these things that benefit mid-Wales, but we’re supporting people here all the time.”

In January over one hundred people attended the first public meeting held regarding changes that could see Bronglais stroke services moved to a hospital in south Wales.

On this issue, the First Minister is adamant that the priority should be getting the best care for patients, even if that means moving hospitals: “If you have a stroke, you want the best possible outcome you can have.

“We’ve been working with stroke experts to look at how we get the best outcomes for everybody across the whole of Wales - they’ve said that rather than every single hospital having a stroke centre, we should have four main centres.

“Hywel Dda healthboard [for Bronglais] has said none of the options they’re considering will change people’s ability to go to Bronglais, [for initial stroke support] but there are some really sophisticated things that you might need if you have a stroke, and the truth is its really difficult to get the expertise all over Wales.”

Morgan, the former health minister for Wales, underlined that no decisions have been made yet.

Questioned on why investment should not be made to improve services in Bronglais as the only hospital in mid-Wales, she responded: “If you have a stroke and there’s an expert a bit further away that’s going to fix you to mean you’re not going to suffer for the next 10 years, you would want to go to the expert and get you back to the local hospital as soon as possible where you can then recieved the support from family around you.

“Part of the real issue is recruitment of specialists, getting experts on a scale that’s sustainable, you can’t magic these people up.

“We’d all love local services on our doorstep - even in places like Cardiff there are very few hospitals you can get a thrombectomy - it’s a specialist service that you have to go to Bristol for in some cases.”

In the cafe opposite Lampeter’s University of Wales campus, the First Minister was due to meet the Vice Chancellor of the university to discuss the recent news of the campus’ closure.

However she wouldn’t take a position on the future of the site: “We give universities in Wales significant funding - it’s up to them to determine how they spend it.

“Obviously it’s upsetting for people in Lampeter to see this grand institution close - that is really difficult but it’s obviously not sustainable if you’ve only got 90 students on your books.

“I’m having discussions later today to see how we can re-imagine what this place could look like and whether there’s a role for us as government to work with them on something.

“It’s better for local people to decide what they want to see, we have to be a bit creative.”

Having only been elected to office last summer, the First Minister is keen to see changes take effect ahead of the 2026 Senedd elections to give “hope” to those disillusioned by politics.

Asking her thoughts on the rise of right-wing party Reform, who are set to do increasingly well in the elections according to recent polls, Morgan said: “I am very worried that people are being suckered in with easy answers to complex questions.

“The interesting thing about Reform is they’re not offering any answers - they’re offering a whole long-winded whine about what’s wrong with the world.

“We can all identify what’s wrong with the world, the difficulty is how do you fix it.

“What we’ve got is a very clear plan of action in relation to the priorities we want to see.

“The first thing I did when I became First Minister was go and listen to what people in Wales wanted to prioritise.

“I’m constantly in listening mode but I’m also in action mode - people get frustrated if we don’t act.

“This is the first time in many years we’ve had a significant uplift in the budget, as the money comes through we hope that will make a difference, we’ll bring NHS waiting lists down and transform people’s lives.”