Council planning to auction off the mayor’s car to save money

Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter

A council is proposing to auction off the mayor’s car to plug a gap in its finances.

Vale of Glamorgan Council has put forward a number of ideas to help it close a £7m budget gap in the next financial year.

If it does decide to get rid of the mayor’s car, the council said an electric pool car would be used instead for official business.

Other proposals the council is considering include increasing parking charges, introducing a charge for the use of its toilets on the coast and removing some public bins.

Auction

A council report on the 2024/25 budget states that the mayor’s official car would be sold at auction and the proceeds from the sale would be added to the mayor’s fund for community grants.

The report also states that removing the mayor’s car could free up £44,000.

At Vale of Glamorgan Council, the mayor currently uses a black Skoda Superb.

The vehicle was in the news in 2017 after an investigation was launched into why it was parked in a disabled bay in Barry without a blue badge displayed.

Vale of Glamorgan Council said at the time that the investigation was confidential and the findings were not published.

Increasing costs

As with local authorities across the country, Vale of Glamorgan Council is continuing to deal with the impact of ever increasing costs and demands on its services.

Some of the other proposals being looked at by the council to help it save millions include increasing council tax by 6.7%, increasing the cost of bulky waste collections and charging more for its Greenlinks transport service.

There are some proposals that the council reconsidered when it first started looking at its budget for 2024/25, like a plan to cut payments for rural bus services which was scrapped.

Leader of the council, Cllr Lis Burnett, called the proposal to get rid of the £470,000 to support non-commercial bus routes unacceptable.

The public consultation on the budget proposals went out on January 18 and closed last week on February 15.

A draft budget is expected to be presented to cabinet members on Thursday, February 29, and a final council vote on the proposals is expected to take place on Wednesday, March 6.