Council under fire over ‘eye-watering’ 14% tax rise vote
CWMAMMAN Town Council has come under fire for voting in favour of an “eye-watering” rise in tax for households during the 2021/2022 financial year.
Labour in Carmarthenshire is criticising the Plaid-led town council after it voted for the rise.
Plaid councillor David Jenkins proposed a tax rise of 14.46%.
The town council serves Cwmamman and Garnant in the Amman Valley and a proportion of the rise in tax will help go towards employing another administrative member of staff.
The increased tax equates to approximately £26 a year per Band D property, or 52p a week.
Cwmamman mayor councillor Tori Sparano has defended the increase and pointed out that the council’s responsibilities have grown substantially over the last four years.
This is in part due “the acquisition of many of the community buildings through asset transfer from Carmarthenshire Council and naturally an increase in staff to support the growth of the town council”, she said.
She citied responsibility for a range of services such as the community centre, bowls pavilion and youth centre.
Labour’s leader in
Carmarthenshire, councillor Rob James argued town councils should refrain from raising their council tax during the pandemic and that the county council should utilise its reserves, totalling tens of millions, and pushing the “nice to have” capital projects back a year to stop the tax rise and cuts to local services.
Reacting to the Cwmamman Town Council vote, Cllr James said: “I am shocked by the tineared behaviour of Plaid Cymru councillors in Carmarthenshire.
“This eye-watering tax rise in Cwmamman, on top of the planned countywide tax rise for Carmarthenshire, means that residents will have to pay an extra £100 a year.
“People simply cannot afford it, this past year has been challenging for us all. So many people have been furloughed and our elderly and vulnerable have been isolated.
“Cwmamman and Garnant residents already pay the highest council tax in Carmarthenshire and I am sure local residents will be concerned with what is being asked of them.”
Councillor Kevin Madge was among the Labour councillors who voted against the rise.
He said: “Plaid Cymru’s attitude of giving with one hand and taking away with the other completely undermines our work on Covid-19 response in Cwmamman, yet we will continue to stand up for local families and businesses.
“To be told that this extra money will go towards more officer time in the town council is not acceptable.
“The officers that support us, as local councillors, do a fantastic job, yet increasing council tax to fund more officers during a pandemic is terrible decision-making and this tax bombshell must be opposed.”
In response, mayor Cllr Sparano said: “The council were in agreement during recent meetings, where we discussed at length the aims and objectives of the council and the overall vision going forward.
“In relation to the recent budget and precept setting meeting, I am deeply disappointed that after all the work we have done together it has been undermined by political point scoring.
“I gave the Labour group members every opportunity to put forward any suggestion to help reduce the precept, but they had nothing to offer and, in the end, refused to participate.
She added: “It would seem that the wellbeing of our staff ranks so low in Cllr Kevin Madge’s regard that, even though they are overstretched and overwhelmed with the increase in responsibilities, he and Labour group members voted against paying them what they rightfully deserve, having gone above and beyond for their community on many occasions.”
She also hit out county Labour leader Cllr Rob James for adding other taxes to paint a “misleading” picture to taxpayers. She added: “Cwmamman Town Council is solely responsible for the Cwmamman precept and so misleading the public by adding in other payments, but insinuating that we are the villains is ludicrous.
“The increase of 14.46% simply put will see Band D properties paying 52p a week more to retain and develop all the services and assets I’ve mentioned for future generations.”