At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council on Thursday, March 5, councillors met to debate the draft budget proposal.
In essence, the budget, which includes a 3.75 per cent Council Tax increase, had been unofficially agreed weeks ago as the Opposition Independent group had worked with the Labour administration on its construction.
Council leader Cllr Steve Thomas (Labour – Tredegar) said: “The settlement is better than we anticipated earlier in the year and it allows us to safeguard jobs and protect front-line services, limit Council Tax increases, and support the uplift of the living wage.
“In summary, this is not a cuts budget; this is a stabilising budget and gets us to a strong, responsible, and credible position for Blaenau Gwent.”
Opposition Independent leader, Cllr Wayne Hodgins (Brynmawr), said: “This isn’t a budget about any political group but the residents out there.
“We’re here to protect the community in any way we can and protect the services people rely on.”
He pointed out that discussions between the groups had brought the Council Tax down to 3.75 per cent from an initial 4.95 per cent.
Non-aligned Cllr Helen Cunningham (Llanhilleth) said: “This budget could be disrupted.
“We have a deranged president in the White House who is taking a sledgehammer to international law and unleashing hell in the Middle East.
“What assessment is being done on the potential destabilisation to affect prices and other things that impact public services?
“There’s potential for this budget to be disrupted.”
She asked whether work to “understand the threat” to the council’s budget is happening.
Cllr Thomas said that work to do this had started.
Cllr Thomas replied: “This is really early days. None of us know what’s going to take place, how long it’s going to be, or the outcome.
“We’ll have to do the best we can to adapt.”
He explained that this could mean using council reserves to balance the books at the end of next year.
Director of corporate services and s151 officer Rhian Hayden said: “I can assure you we will be monitoring the situation closely and identifying any emerging pressures.
“They will be reported as part of our normal budget management framework.
“There is potentially quite a bit of turmoil that could impact the budget.”
Councillors went to vote, and they all supported the budget apart from Reform UK’s Cllr Jonathan Millard (Ebbw Vale South).
The papers show that the budget estimate for next year is that Blaenau Gwent needs £213.78 million to run its services, which include schools, Social Services, rubbish collection, and road maintenance.
The council will receive a 4.9 per cent increase in funding from the Welsh Government, which is the third best among the 22 local authorities in Wales.
This takes its annual funding settlement for Blaenau Gwent up to £165.53 million, with the Council Tax fees and charges taking the budget up to £210.7 million.
This leaves the council needing to make £3.925 million in cuts and savings to balance the books.
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