Anglesey Council set to raise Council Tax by 4.5%
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Decision makers on Anglesey will propose a 4.5% council tax hike when members meet next week.
Last week, the authority’s corporate scrutiny committee had recommended a 5% rise, citing a need to replenish “dangerously low” reserves and mitigate for potential risks such as a higher than the 2% budgeted for staff pay rise.
But decreeing a 5% rise as “too much”, the Executive voted to propose 4.5% when full council meets on March 10.
However, it was also decided that the authority will need to budget for budget surpluses over coming years due to concerns – shared with the Wales Audit Office – that the reserves will have been severely depleted to just £4.6m by the end of March – well short of the £7.11m that number crunchers believe to be optimal for a council of its size.
This is due to years of overspending, largely blamed on demand-led services such as children and adults’ social services, with another overspend of £1.24m expected by the end of the current financial year.
The portfolio holder for finance, Cllr Robin Williams, conceded that the reserves would “not be replenished overnight”, with 151 officer Marc Jones adding that the Wales Audit Office had displayed concern over Anglesey’s dependence on its reserves to balance the books.
In a bid to stop such overspending in future, extra cash has been earmarked to fund some of the biggest offenders, namely adults services and school transport, with members critical of the Welsh Government for Anglesey’s relatively poor showing compared to other local authorities.
Cllr Williams added that had Anglesey received a similar 4.6% rise to Gwynedd, in comparison to its own 3.8% rise, it would have seen an extra £800,000 pour into council coffers – the equivalent of a 2.5% council tax cut for every resident on the island.
“This is a £1.08p a week increase but still means that council tax on Anglesey would be cheaper than every north Wales council with the exception of Wrexham,” he added.
“The settlement, although we’re thankful of the additional funding, does leave a bad taste in the mouth that the Welsh Government has decided that some authorities will receive more at the expense of others.”
The Executive did, however, accept the recommendations of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee to snot press ahead with planned parking hikes at town centre car parks – with the exception of scrapping the 50p minimum for half an hour’s parking.
Planned price rises as coastal car parks, typically frequented by tourists, are still set to go ahead however.
Cllr Carwyn Jones said, “We need to help out small businesses where possible, and I agree that implementing a minimum tariff of an hour’s parking will mean people aren’t in as much of a rush to return to their cars.
“High streets across the country have suffered blow after blow and its been very hard for them.”
If the 4.5% council tax rise is approved when the full council meets in Llangefni on March 10, it will mean that the average Band D property will see its bills rise by £1.08 a week or £57.15 a year to £1,305.72.
By Gareth Williams – Local Democracy Reporter
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