Caerphilly County Borough residents will see their council tax rise by 1% after councillors agreed next year’s council budget.
The rise for 2017/18, believed to be the lowest in Wales, was agreed at a heated meeting of full council on Wednesday, February 22. Residents living in a Band D property will see an increase of £10.02 a year from £1,001.94 to £1,011.96 – the equivalent of 19p a week.
Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Barbara Jones, deputy leader of council, said: “I am proud to present a budget report which clearly demonstrates that this authority is leading the way in Wales thanks to our sound financial planning and budget management.
“I am also proud of the way that this authority has achieved significant savings over recent years whilst protecting and maintaining key frontline services in the heart of our communities.
“Our budget proposals are fair, well thought out and they put local people first. I’m sure our residents across the county borough will welcome the fact that we are limiting the Council Tax increase to just 1% for 2017/18.”
The council also agreed that £3.5m will be allocated to meet ongoing financial pressures for Social Services, while school funding will increase by 1.25%, which equates to £1.3m in 2017/18.
However, budget savings totalling around £9m were also agreed at the meeting and councillors were warned that a further £28.8m needed to be shaved from its budget over the next four years.
Cllr Colin Mann, leader of the Plaid Cymru opposition group on the council, warned that council tax will rise in those years.
He said: “The figures tell us that a Band D council tax payer will be paying more than £100 per annum extra since Labour came into office in 2012.
“Looking at the background papers it is not difficult to learn that this year’s 1% is only a temporary reprieve. If Labour succeed in getting back into office in May, and that is a big, they are planning to go back to former habits. The following years are showing proposed rises of up to three per cent in council tax.
“Not only that fees and charges are also proposed to rise by an equal amount. Residents of Caerphilly county will again be paying through the nose for further cuts in frontline services – services like park staff, litter wardens and other waste services.
“On top of that, the voluntary sector, which gives excellent value for money, has had a drastic cut in the money that is going from this council.
“We will see further increases in things like fly-tipping, issues with dog mess, more potholes and worsening roads, because of the cutbacks.
“We have also seen examples of Labour mis-management such as the charges for parking in country parks which has raised not much more than half the forecast income. It has also resulted in less people going to these places – directly against the healthy living policies being promoted elsewhere in this council.”
Labour councillors attacked Plaid Cymru for not voting for the budget, criticising them for not having any alternatives and also attacked them for a leaflet distributed to residents which claimed the cost of the pay scandal could have paid for two primary schools.
Cllr Dave Poole said: “There’s a grubby little leaflet going around sponsored by Cllr Mann that says the senior officer pay has cost us two primary schools. Abertysswg Primary School cost us £8.5m, so in my book that’s £17m – nowhere near that at all.”
Council leader Keith Reynolds, who recently announced he was standing down at May’s election because of ill health, paid tribute to council officers and the union Unison for their work in helping the local authority balance its books in the face of austerity.
He said: “This authority has had to take over £50m out of the budget during the last four years. We’ve done that and at the same time we’ve kept council tax to one of the lowest increases, if not the lowest increase in the whole of Wales.”
However, the Labour councillor was stopped in his tracks by the Mayor, who was chairing the meeting, when he said Plaid Cymru councillor James Fussell, by his own admission, did not vote against the unlawful pay deal which saw senior bosses get salary increases of around 30%.
3.99% increase to pay for police service
The portion of the council tax bill that pays for police services will increase by 3.99% from April, Gwent’s Police and Crime Commissioner has announced.
This means that, from April this year, the average household which falls in the Gwent force area will now pay an extra 17p a week for its policing service.
Labour’s Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner Jeff Cuthbert has said the rise will enable the force to maintain current services and invest in an additional 40 police officers.
Last month, the independent Gwent Police and Crime Panel supported the PCC’s proposal to apply an increase of 3.99% but asked Mr Cuthbert to consider an increase of 3.55%.
Mr Cuthbert said that after careful consideration, he decided to set the increase at his original figure of 3.99%.
He said: “These are very challenging financial times as policing budgets continue to be squeezed and this budget is built on the success of a major efficiency programme delivered by the force.
“I am also very conscious of the tough financial pressures that many households in Gwent are facing. However, the UK Government’s continued cuts to policing left me with no option except to make the very difficult decision of increasing the precept.
“There was an endorsement from the public for this direction as a result of my recent consultation and individual feedback from my many public events and meetings. I would like to thank all of the residents of Gwent who took the time to give me their views. Their responses ultimately informed my decision. I would also like to thank the Panel for their scrutiny and support.”
A previous version of this article incorrectly reported that Cllr Keith Reynolds had claimed Cllr James Fussell had voted for the pay award. Cllr Reynolds had in fact said Cllr Fussell did not vote against the pay award.
The Police and Crime Commissioner is “very conscious of the tough financial pressures that many households in Gwent are facing” That’s great, what about the people of Caerffili, The Aber Valley, Ystrad Mynach, Llanbradach, etc who live in Glamorgan? Never a mention of us.
Who would have thought that Caerffili, who had its own station for more than a century, would end up being policed by officers from a village station in Bedwas?
This increase is ridiculous why should we pay more for the police, when they cant deliver a service now. I have a way of saving money for them, stop moving premises every few years, stop building brand new stations and then leaving them 5-6 years later. Also get them out walking like in my day instead of driving round in their cosy cars. No wonder the public have been detached from them, i agree with you totally Richard in my day every town had a police station now we have a talking shop manned by Cso who cant do anything. On the budget increase i hope thy cut the right departments have instead of front line services , one i can think of right away is those wardens, and the safer carphilly team. Lets leave policing to the police not these wannabes Who dress up like them. I seen them again today why are thy allowed to look so simlar to a policeman is beyond me
They’re completely useless anyway. Not even interested in investigating.
Worse still – an increase in council tax and police precept for an ever declining presence !
Back last year, a kind passer-by rang our bell to tell us he’d just seen a car knock the wing mirror of our car, which was parked outside our house. He told us it was a silver Fiesta, and he’d got the first half of the number plate.
My wife called the police immediately, and clearly overheard somebody in the background saying, “Tell her it’s not enough evidence.” Heaven forfend the police investigate anything these days.
A few days later, two officers (wouldn’t one have been enough) came to my door to tell me they’d checked the national database, and there wasn’t a single silver Fiesta anywhere in the entire United Kingdom with that half number plate.
Given the number of silver Fords I see every day, I found that very hard to believe. I posted a whinge on the community Facebook page, and another kind member of the public (there are so many of them in Caerphilly!) found three silver Fiestas with that half number plate just in the local area, just with a simple Google search!
Eventually, a month later, the Bedwas police station called to say they’d visited those three addresses, but none of the cars showed any sign of damage. I replied that, after a month, I wasn’t remotely surprised. It only takes a few hours to replace a wing mirror.
The truth is, these niggling little crimes may be significant to us, but the police aren’t remotely interested. I have been asking councillors for years why we should pay the police portion of our council tax when the police won’t do their jobs, but I’ve never received a decent answer.
3.99%? Why do they deserve anything at all?