THE Labour councillors running Monmouthshire County Council have been accused of putting their political interests before those of residents by failing to lobby Welsh Government for a better funding settlement. 

Once again, Monmouthshire has received the lowest funding per capita of any council in Wales, with the increase on last year of just 2.3% well below inflation and the Welsh average of 3.1%. 

Yet, the strongest response to the settlement from the Monmouthshire Labour cabinet came from the part-time cabinet member for resources Cllr Ben Callard, who said it was ‘disappointing’. 

Monmouthshire’s Conservative Group has repeatedly called on the administration to work with other poorly funded councils like the Vale of Glamorgan, Flintshire and Conwy to call for the 2% funding floor to be raised to 3%, meaning no council would receive an increase of less than 3%. 

Last week the council’s Labour-led administration put forward a 7.5% council tax rise, the largest in more than 20 years, along with £8.4million of cuts to frontline services, including a cut of nearly £1million to the delegated budget for schools. 

Conservative Group Leader Cllr Richard John said: “When you run a local authority your first loyalty is not to your political party, but to your residents. 

“A 3% funding floor would increase Monmouthshire’s settlement by £700,000, meaning the cabinet could cancel out much of its proposed cut to school budgets, but I assume these Labour councillors don’t want to speak out for fear of embarrassing the Labour Party in the run up to a general election. 

“The cabinet should be working constructively across Wales to build a coalition of cross-party councils in favour of raising the funding floor and arguing the case with Welsh Ministers. 

“Instead they seem to be sat on their hands saying it’s ‘disappointing’ and taking the easy approach to budget setting by raising council tax by 7.5% and cutting frontline services instead of working innovatively to reform services and drive efficiencies. 

“These Labour councillors were more than happy to criticise the UK Government when the county’s levelling up bid was unsuccessful, yet have been completely silent while Monmouthshire continues to get the lowest funding settlement of any council in Wales, further exacerbated this year by one of the lowest percentage increases. 

“7.5% is the biggest council tax rise in Monmouthshire since the last time Labour ran the council over 20 years ago.  But this could be reduced if the Welsh Government could be persuaded to improve the settlement for a small number of poorly funded authorities.  We strongly urge the cabinet to start putting residents’ interests first.”