COUNCIL tax in Conwy will rise by 6.5% after a vote by full council today (Thursday) – after a vote for a lesser 4.5% increase failed.
At a full council meeting at Colwyn Bay’s Coed Pella HQ, councillors voted in favour of the 6.5% rise, which will raise an extra £5.632m for the authority.
The cash-strapped council will now plug a £7.968m resource shortfall with £2.236m of service cuts, £100,000 from reserves, and £5.632m from council tax.
The authority’s head of finance Amanda Hughes warned councillors against taking more money from the council’s reserves, referring to current global conflicts making the economy uncertain and potentially unstable.
Cllr Chris Cater, cabinet member for finance and strategic planning, proposed councillors backed the 6.5% rise to balance the budget but said the authority was poorly financed by the annual sum it received from Welsh Government.
He said this was especially true due to Conwy having an elderly population which meant a high social care bill.
He added: “It must be remembered the national funding formula does not give us the full support we should be receiving, given our relatively large older population.”
He added that 71.6% of the authority’s funding came from Welsh Government and that Conwy County Council would receive £309 per head less than Denbighshire and £153 per head less than Gwynedd.
But Cllr Andrew Wood proposed that the authority used another £1.7m from reserves and only increased council tax by 4.5%. This was seconded by Cllr Mandy Hawkins.
Cllr Cheryl Carlisle then requested a recorded vote, which was agreed. But after the recorded vote was plagued by technical issues, the proposal for the lower 4.5% increase was lost with 32 councillors voting against and 17 voting in favour.
The local democracy reporting service was unable to list councillors’ individual votes at the time of writing, due to many of the votes being inaudible.
After the initial vote failed, Cllr David Carr then proposed that councillors voted for a 0% council tax rise, also taking money from reserves, but not one councillor seconded his suggestion.
The final vote on accepting the 6.5% increase was won with 34 in favour and 18 against.
Speaking after the meeting, leader of the opposition Cllr Cheryl Carlisle criticised the increase.
Her words followed fellow Conservative councillor Gareth Jones pointing to the impact any rise would have on residents’ disposable income, with council tax rises of “37.5% over the past four years”.
“The Conservative Group in Conwy Council were united in voting against the 6.55% council tax increase now being imposed on the residents of Conwy,” said Cllr Carlisle.
“We were prepared to support a previous lower proposal of 4.55% to try and reduce the burden on the hard-pressed council tax payers, but this proposal was also defeated.”
She added: “By reducing people’s disposable income, it means there is less money to spend in our local economy and less to spend on people’s children and grandchildren. The money wasted on Mochdre Commerce Park, Porth Eirias, vanity schemes, Active Travel schemes, and unsustainable green vehicles cannot continue. Our residents deserve better.”
The rise amounts to a band D equivalent increase of around £122.75 a year or around £2.36 a week, with the council taking £115 and North Wales Fire and Rescue Service taking £7.74 approximately.
The increase raises council tax to £2,011.26 a year for a band D property.
The rise follows a 30% increase in council tax in the last three years alone.
