Council tax: Why residents in Wales are paying more while some services are cut

Colin Smith, the neighbourhood Services Operation Manager said: "In the last 12 months we've changed to three weekly black bag collections." Credit: Sharp End

Council tax across Wales has gone up as local authorities try to plug funding gaps as high as £482 million, according to the Welsh Local Government Association.

The amount residents will see their bills increase by varies across Wales, with 5% added for those living in Torfaen and Pembrokeshire residents facing more than 12% extra council tax.

ITV Wales’ Sharp End explores why councils are having to make cuts while putting up council tax at the same time.

Vale of Glamorgan Council allowed cameras in to see its decision-making process and where it chose to spend its money.

In the Vale of Glamorgan, residents sort their own recycling, which saves between £1.2-£1.4 million a year. Credit: ITV Sharp End

The South Wales local authority was facing financial pressures totalling £38 million and needed to make savings of £7.7 million to bring expenditure in line with income.

In a bid to keep up with growing demand to care for an ageing population and a rising number of children with Additional Learning Needs (ALNs), council tax has risen and other services have had to be cut.

How much will your council tax go up in Wales?

So how have councils crunched the numbers and what difference will residents see?

For Jon Greatrex and his team, the council’s decision not to apply for Green Flag status has been tough but he is now seeing it as a chance for change.

"I think for wildlife and ecology maybe it's going to be a different thing and i'm trying to get my head around, maybe we go down more of a country park model."

It would mean more wilder areas, more wild flowers, more trees and less grass cutting, "so we can do it more ecologically," he added.

Swapping out expensive flowers is one way the council has given schools - which account for a huge chunk of its budget - a 5% increase.

Janet Hayward said the budget increase is a "drop in an ocean that doesn't come anywhere close to providing us with the funds". Credit: Sharp End

Cadoxton Primary School in Barry offers a breakfast club to ensure children have a sit-down meal before their day's learning starts.

Headteacher Janet Hayward said: "There is a portion of money that comes into our school budget to pay for breakfast club. The reality of that is it doesn't come anywhere near paying for the number of staff we need to effectively staff breakfast.

"We have about 90 children at breakfast every morning and it certainly doesn't cover the money we need for food."

Mrs Hayward added that the budget increase is a "drop in an ocean that doesn't come anywhere close to providing us with the funds that we need to educate our children."

Budget shortfalls mean councils have to come up with news ways of making savings. In the Vale of Glamorgan, residents sort their own recycling. It means cartons, cans and packets can be sold - saving between £1.2-£1.4 million a year.

ITV Wales’ Sharp End explores why councils are having to make cuts while putting up council tax at the same time. Credit: Sharp End

Leader of the council, Lis Burnett, said the decisions her and her colleagues have made over this year's budget have been "absolutely impossible."

She said: "We've always prioritised our most vulnerable - so that's social care and education. When we got to the realisation, that if we funded all the cost pressures for education... it would virtually wipe out our neighbourhood services budget.

"So when you've got people saying 'you've got to fill more pot holes or we want you to do x, y and z' in their communities, how do you weigh that up against the needs of a young person with autism? Those are the real difficult decisions we find ourselves in."

The Labour Council Leader says she still feels privileged to be in her position but "sad" to not be able to do more for residents.

She said: "They're not difficult decisions, they are absolutely impossible decisions, because you know that the decisions you are making are actually going to affect people's lives.

"Not one council leader in Wales, of any political party, came into politics to make cuts. Everybody tends to come into politics because of things you want to achieve and that hasn't been possible for any council leader in Wales, and probably the UK, for the last 14 years."

  • Tune in to Sharp End on Tuesday (April 23) at 10:45pm on ITV Cymru Wales, where our panel will delve deeper into council budgets. You can catch up on the latest episode here.