5% council tax rise to be decided
TAXPAYERS in Conwy could soon be hit by the third 5% rise in council tax in three years.
The county council is proposing the rise, which would take effect from April 1, as the local authority wrestles with a £16m budget shortfall for the next financial year.
The increase would mean a Band D household would pay £1,013 a year, and that bills will have increased by 15.7% since the 2013/14 financial year.
Conwy county’s full meeting on Thursday, February 26, will decide whether to go forward with a proposed 5% hike, providing cabinet also recommends the increase on February 10.
Councillors debated the proposals in the authori- ty’s budgetary report at Monday’s principal and overview scrutiny committee meeting in Bodlondeb.
The council’s head of financial services Andrew Kirkham presented the proposal among his budget report for 20152016.
Mr Kirkham told the committee that Conwy’s funding settlement was one of the worst in Wales at 20th out of 22 authorities, a cut of 4.3%.
The total budget for Conwy Council in the 2015/16 financial year is £215m, but with just £199m of expected resources the authority is having to make up a shortfall of £16m.
The council’s projected income from council tax in the year 2015/16 will be £50m, a rise of £7m from 2014/15.
“We are not just loading the financial challenges onto the council tax payer,” Mr Kirkham told the meeting.
“We’ve got a broad spread of budget reductions coming out throughout the authority, through lots of different initiatives.”
In November last year, Mr Kirkham said that, despite the increase, Conwy would still have the lowest council tax in NorthWales.
Finance portfolio holder Cllr Mike Priestley said: “We cannot underestimate the forthcoming challenges we will face financially.”
Conwy council will also seek to lessen the impact of the cuts by using £2.9m of its £28.4m reserves.
Recent proposed savings include scrapping free parking at Colwyn Bay promenade, raising parking fees by 20% and conducting a shake-up of library services.