Backbencher slams cabinet over council’s £22m funding shortfall

Richard Evans – Local democracy reporter

A heated debate erupted at a council committee meeting when a backbench councillor slammed the local authority, blaming the cabinet for wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Conwy’s finance and resources committee met at Coed Pella on Monday (September 1) where councillors debated the Business Planning Framework for setting the budget in 2026/27.

But councillors were warned that Conwy was only expecting a 2% increase in its local government settlement, the annual amount awarded to councils by Welsh Government.

Services

This predicted amount, councillors heard, would result in a £22m shortfall, which could result in another council tax increase of 12.5% – following a 30% rise in just three years.

Another option would be to slash council services.

Pressures affecting Conwy include teacher pay increases, which are set outside the council, inflation, and years of subsequent low annual settlements from Welsh Government.

Whilst most of the chamber seemed to blame either Welsh or central government for the shortfall, Old Colwyn councillor David Carr criticised the cabinet.

Cllr Carr claimed the council was “wasting” money on non-statutory services such as a communications strategy, which he remarked promoted “national tea day” and home-to-school transport.

He also hit out at Conwy’s funding of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations (QUANGOs), such as the North Wales Ambition Board.

Funding

Leader Cllr Charlie McCoubrey said 80% of Conwy’s budget was spent on social care and education, blaming Welsh Government’s funding formula, and told Cllr Carr to put forward solid proposals for savings.

“Residents have had a 30% (council tax) rise,” said Cllr Carr.

“This is in a cost-of-living crisis for pensioners and for working families earning just above minimum wage – this is a disaster. We can’t carry on going to the council tax year on year on year on year and putting it up by substantial amounts. We’ve got to cut that non-essential spending.

“Let’s actually listen to residents a little bit more because they are the ones that are paying the price. We’ve not been successful in the last three years, have we, when we’ve put council tax up by such a large amount, and we always seem to blame other people.”

He added: “It is always the government in Wales, the government in London. It is always someone else’s fault, and then we are spending money on things that the public can’t understand why we are spending the money.”

Leader Cllr Charlie McCoubrey challenged Cllr Carr to put forward solid proposals, indicating he was criticising the council without providing viable solutions.

“We did a review of our home-to-school transport services last year, and actually some of the changes that were made were not very popular, and there is considerable opposition still to conditions that we’ve put on there,” said Cllr McCoubrey.

“You say this a lot about non-statutory services, but you never actually put forward what savings should be. That is a brave, straight-forward thing to do, say: this is what we’d save because we are talking big numbers here. 80% of our service (budget) is on social care and education, and to be fair, you are a very strong advocate of our need to protect and extend our social services and our education, so you are left then with 20% (of the budget); 80% of that is ERF (environment, roads, and facilities).

“Again, you are a strong advocate of spending more on bins and our roads and keeping the area tidy. That leaves us with very, very, very little, and even if I agreed that these were not essential services, the actual percentage of our whole budget and the actual money simply does not add up. You’d be saving a fraction.”

He added: “We’ve moved mountain and earth to save £80m over the last three years. I’ve emailed you before about this. If you want to put forward a list as to what those savings are, then you have the opportunity at the budget meeting to say this is what I propose we cut.”

Cllr Carr responded: “On the home-to-school transport, yeah, if you cut things, it’s going to be unpopular. But why are we spending over £4m on discretionary home-to-school transport?

“We never used to spend this money on home-to-school transport. That needs to go. The North Wales Ambition Board, it is a QUANGO; it is a waste of money and at a time when residents in my ward are really struggling to pay the council tax, and we are looking at more council tax increases.

“And this communication (strategy), that is a recent thing. We don’t need it, do we? It is not an essential service, not essential at all. Cllr Emily (deputy leader Cllr Owen) is laughing and thinks it’s funny, yet you are spending the money on these things.”

Cllr Emily Owen responded: “I won’t be taking lectures off you, Cllr David, in regard to making difficult decisions.”

She then accused Cllr Carr of asking for unrealistic investments in terms of better pest control, improved dog wardens, and swimming club discounts whilst not putting concrete proposals forward.

She added: “What you are doing at the moment is just peddling a rhetoric that we can just cut, cut, cut. You’ve had the opportunity for three years to put forward an alternative budget.”

Cllr Carr attempted to reply before the chairwoman Cllr Cheryl Carlisle refused permission, which led to Cllr Carr continuing to speak even though his microphone appeared to have been cut off. The authority’s legal officer then intervened.

Warning

Head of finance Amanda Hughes warned councillors about the shortfall, but denied the council was wasting its funds.

“One thing I want to observe, because I think you see a lot of rhetoric on social media on around somehow the £22m shortfall is somehow linked to us in terms of not managing our resources effectively when in reality that £22m pressure is coming from service demand from us looking after our vulnerable residents, looking after our older people, looking after our vulnerable children, providing essential services,” she said.

“That is where that cost pressure is coming from. It is not coming from other things effectively. It is the demand for services.”

She added the financial settlement from Welsh Government was unlikely to be “keeping pace” with the demands of the pressures.

Ms Hughes said: “In actual terms, therefore, there is a cash deficit that needs to be met and therefore difficult decisions to be taken.”

Cllr Gareth Jones said services had already been “cut to the bone” and pointed to a potential council tax rise of 12.5% to cover the shortfall, calling it “untenable”.

“As you say, Amanda (Ms Hughes), if we were to raise our council tax at 5%, it would leave us £13m short, so there’s our shortfall there, and that would be against the backdrop of what we’ve had,” he said.

“If we were able to hold the council tax increase to 5%, that would be quite a result, but to actually increase it to 12.5%, which is what we are looking at the moment, it is just untenable, and I think we’ve reached the stage where really cutting services – we’ve cut them down to the bone, so I really don’t know where we go.”

The committee approved the report and will expect more information in November when the Welsh Government is due to give more indication on local government settlement levels.