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South Wales Fire and Rescue Service is set to approve a rise in the amount of money it takes from council tax payers.
Council tax payers in Caerphilly County Borough may have to pay an extra 2.57% towards the fire service.
At a meeting on Monday, February 8, the fire service will consider its budget for 2021/2022, with a recommended contribution of £77.5 million from the ten local authority areas it covers.
Each of the ten local authorities will see different levels of increase if plans go ahead – with an average increase of 3.54% across south Wales.
How much will tax payers in each local authority area pay?
- Blaenau Gwent would see its contribution go up by £76,160 (from £3.4m to £3.48m) which is a rise of 2.24%
- Bridgend would see its contribution increase by £308,407 (from £7.05m to £7.36m) which is a rise of 4.37%
- Caerphilly would see its contribution increase by £227,736 (from £8.87m to £9.09m) making it a rise of 2.57%
- Cardiff would see its contribution go up by £387,756 (from £17.98m to £18.37m) which is a rise of 2.16%
- Merthyr Tydfil would see its contribution increase by £115,364 (from £2.92m to £3.03m) which is a rise of 3.94%
- Monmouthshire would see its contribution go up by £176,343 (from £4.58m to £4.76m) which is a rise of 3.85%
- Newport’s contribution would go up by £446,368 (from £7.4m to £7.85m) which is a rise of 6.03%
- Rhondda Cynon Taf’s contribution would increase by £386,706 (from £11.73m to £12.11m) a rise of 3.3%
- Torfaen’s contribution would go up by £163,227 (from £4.53m to 4.69m) a rise of 3.6%
- And the Vale of Glamorgan’s contribution would increase by £361,955 (from £6.38m to £6.74m) a rise of 5.67%.
This will fund things such as staff costs, premises related costs, supplies and services and transport costs, among other things.
The proposed 3.54% rise is approximately £600,000 less than the 4.3% originally included in the fire service’s Medium Term Financial Strategy.
Across the ten areas the fire service covers, the Welsh Government provisional settlement, which was announced in December, saw an aggregate increase in funding of 4.1%.
Population changes impact directly on the level of budget contributions from individual councils.
The fire service has previously estimated a range of increases in council contributions of between 2% and 6% – which the report said appears to have been accurate with a proposed average increase of 3.54%.
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