3.95% council tax rise agreed for Conwy

Council tax will rise in Conwy county following the budget being set by councillors at a meeting today.

Councillors followed the cabinet’s recommendation to increase council tax by 3.95%, equating to an actual rise of 3.83% when considering the 3.68% police precept increase and the 1.20% extra for town and community councils.

This means, from April 1, residents living in a band D property in Conwy will now pay £1,803.14, a rise of £66.47 from £1,736.67 in 2021/22.

The decision follows Cabinet agreeing the rate last month when Cllr Brian Cossey, the councillor with the finance portfolio, admitted services had been ‘cut to the bone’ as the council faced a £7.8m shortfall.

Cllr Cossey again presented the figures to councillors before the budget was voted through.

It’s also agreed that services – including schools – will be forced to make cuts of 1.5% to generate over £3m.
Despite the promise of a 9.5% rise in its settlement from Welsh Government, the council says it now has more costs to cover.

Leader Cllr Charlie McCoubrey said the council had done its best to keep council tax low.
“Council tax is really challenging. It is really emotive,” he said.
“We’ve delivered services for the last 10 years cheaper than our neighbours (Gwynedd and Denbighshire).
“While we have been proud of our lower council tax rate, we have to be realistic about that. But we also know there is a cost-of-living crisis out there. Fuel prices are shooting through the roof. Inflation is out-stripping wage growth. That is also something that is very challenging for us moving forward.
“We needed to bring a council tax figure that was as low as possible and definitely below the inflation rate. I think we’ve done that. It is the best we can do. There is no perfection there.”

Cllr Nigel Smith said he supported the proposals.
“Bearing in mind our residents have suffered with COVID, a reduction, probably, in their incomes, and then we’ve got rising inflation of food and on energy, so I don’t look forward to setting the council tax to 3.95%,” he said.

“But it is a realistic increase, bearing in mind our council tax is cheaper than our neighbouring counties, and that is something we will have to address going forward.”

By Richard Evans – Local Democracy Reporter