Tax freeze is agreed despite call for reduction
COUNCIL members have agreed to freeze council tax for next year, despite calls for a “modest reduction”.
Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) met last week and agreed on the final budget proposals put to them. As well as a freeze on council tax, councillors agreed to contribute £2.5m of its £495m gross budget to ensure care workers receive a Real Living Wage.
A significant portion of funding will go towards child care and education, with £1.5m a year set to go towards primary, secondary and special needs schools.
Children’s social services, safeguarding and foster care will receive an extra £1.2m a year, while an additional £650,000 a year will be directed towards supported living services aimed at people with learning disabilities.
The freeze on council tax and rise in spending has largely been made possible by the 9.2% increase in funding from the Welsh Government.
Speaking at the meeting, Independent Alliance Group Leader, Alex Williams, said the level of the Welsh Government’s provisional settlement was a welcome sight.
He said: “I think I can speak for the majority of colleagues across the whole council in saying that I welcome the local government settlement, which provides an additional £19.6m, or a 9.2% uplift to the local authority’s budget.
“This is very welcome news, given the fact that we were expecting a more modest budget settlement.” However, he expressed a desire to go further and called for a reduction in council tax.
The Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) presented to the council stated that the total amount collected from council tax has increased by almost 60% over the past 10 years.
According to Welsh Government figures, Bridgend has the sixth highest average council tax level per dwelling at £1,649 (2021-22) – £104 higher than the
Welsh national average – across all 22 authorities.
Referring to the figures in the MTFS, Cllr Williams said: “Those living in a band D property will be paying in excess of £302 for their council tax and this is a huge financial burden.
“Many people will know that this is the second highest financial burden after peoples’ mortgages and rental payments.”
While he was pleased to see a freeze, he added: “I and some of my colleagues don’t feel that it goes far enough to alleviate the financial burden on the cost of living crisis, which the deputy leader has rightly mentioned.
“I and my colleagues would like to have seen a modest council tax cut, not a freeze, after years of council tax increases.”
Speaking after the meeting, Conservative Group leader at BCBC, Cllr Matthew Voisey, also noted the provisional settlement from the Welsh Government was good, but added that he believed the council missed an opportunity to lower council tax.
He said: “It is not to go unnoticed. I feel very sad for Bridgend council tax payers, who are in the top [end] of council tax payers in Wales. I believe there was [room for a reduction].”
In response to Cllr Willaims’ proposal, the chief officer for finance performance and change, Carys Lord, said: “From my position as the 151 officer I would strongly advise you not to reduce the council tax.
“There is an issue that if you were to do that we would have to identify further reductions to services in order to fund it, and I also think that if we lost money from our council tax base, we would find it difficult to make that up in the future.”
SERVICES on the busy South Wales main railway line were stopped for more than three hours by a man who decided to walk home along the tracks after arguing with his girlfriend.
Callum Edwards would later tell police he didn’t know how to get home to Cardiff from his partner’s house in Briton Ferry, but knew that the tracks went that way.
After he was spotted heading east on the tracks, all trains were stopped between Port Talbot and Bridgend and police mounted a search operation to find him. After some three-and-a-half hours the 25-year-old was found by officers hiding in track-side bushes.
A judge told Edwards his actions had been “wholly irresponsible” and had caused huge disruption for passengers.
Hannah George, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that at around 11.15am on July 3 last year British Transport Police received reports of a man on the railway line near Baglan station who was heading towards Port Talbot.
As a result of the information all services were suspended between Port Talbot and Bridgend stations, and officers began a search operation.
The court heard Edwards was eventually located hiding in bushes beside the tracks some two miles east of Port Talbot, and was arrested.
In his subsequent interview the defendant said he had been at his girlfriend’s house in Briton Ferry but had argued with her, and wanted to go home to Cardiff.
He said he hadn’t known the way to Cardiff but knew the railway tracks went that way so decided to walk home.
He said he had had suicidal thoughts while walking home but had hid in the bushes when trains approached – he estimated “at least” five trains had passed him while he was walking.
Callum Edwards, of Firs Avenue, Fairwater, Cardiff, had previously pleaded guilty to obstructing an engine using a railway – contrary to the Malicious Damage Act 1861 – when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
The court heard that, unlikely for many offences, there are no sentencing guidelines for obstructing an engine but it carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison.
Edwards has six previous convictions for seven offences, and at the time of the track incident was subject to a community order imposed by magistrates in Cardiff in October 2020 for sending a series of abusive messages to a former partner.
Judge Paul Thomas QC told Edwards that what he had done on the day in question was “wholly irresponsible”, and had caused huge inconvenience and disruption for a large number of people.
He said the pre-sentence report on the defendant was a “mixed” one but that the Probation Service had concluded it could continue to work with him.
With a one third discount for his guilty plea Edwards was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years, and was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and to abide by a three-month nightly curfew.
Judge Thomas told the defendant he had avoided immediate custody “by the skin of your teeth”, and he warned him that if he committed any offence in the next two years he would be brought back to court and sent straight to prison.