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Caerphilly County Borough Council will not be revisiting proposals to cut home to school transport in next year’s budget, but its leader has not ruled out council tax increases.

Cllr Jamie Pritchard said there would be no council tax “gimmicks” in the budget, and believes residents “understand” bills could rise to pay for investment in services.

Like Wales’ other local authorities, Caerphilly will unveil its spending plans for 2026/27 in the new year.

Ahead of the budget, Cllr Pritchard distanced the authority from repeating several of last year’s policies that proved controversial among residents.

There will be no return of proposed cuts to school transport, despite the service creating ever-greater budget pressures.

Cllr Pritchard said this decision was “a matter of choice”, adding: “We fully understand why changing the criteria for home to school transport caused concern in the community.”

The council had proposed increasing the travel distances under which children would qualify for free transport, in line with Welsh Government minimums.

Following a public consultation, the council then removed primary schools from its plans – and then dropped the changes altogether after backbench councillors insisted on seeing road safety investigations before they voted on the policy.

“Caerphilly offers a more generous policy than most local authorities, but we think it’s right to stick as we are,” said Cllr Pritchard of next year’s budget. “Investing in education is a key priority for this administration.”

The council leader added there would be no revival of last year’s budget plan to cut school crossing patrols outside some borough schools.

The local authority removed the measure from its final budget for 2025/26, again after public opposition.

Cllr Pritchard said revisiting the proposal in the new budget would be “an unwelcome move”.

“The public were very clear last year, so this is also off the table,” he added.

Another controversial spending decision from last year was a 75% increase to sports pitch fees, which was a part of the budget consultation but later sparked an angry reaction when the council set out the detailed plans to clubs in the spring.

More than 5,000 signed a petition warning the move could “lead to the collapse of grassroots programmes”, and the authority ended up climbing down from its original price hikes to bring them in line with neighbouring councils.

Cllr Pritchard said the public had “made their views clear” on the original proposals for “significant increases” to the cost of sports pitch fees.

Looking ahead to the next budget, he said a “below-inflation” increase would be proposed for fees and charges “across the board”.

Despite the vast majority of council funding coming from central government, local authorities also raise income by setting council tax rates – and any rises inevitably prove a hot topic when budgets are set.

Cllr Pritchard said the budget-setting process remained “challenging” despite a reported funding increase of 4.3% from the Welsh Government for next year.

He added he would hope to “demonstrate some sizeable growth in the budget” when it is announced in January.