SIR, Last week, the council agreed its budget for the year beginning in April. In all the time I have been a councillor, 17 years, this has been by far the most difficult budget to build. Yet the debate on Thursday was one of the least contentious. All councillors across the political spectrum acknowledge the huge financial pressures we face and that the options possible are getting less each year. Our Labour group had some suggestions for limited changes but all had been examined months ago and had been rejected as impractical or unachievable. There were, however, two surprises. The leader of the Independent group, Cllr Simon Howarth, suggested re-instating changes to school transport and paying for it by hiking council tax increases up almost six per cent whilst Cllr Blakebrough from Trellech suggested that the council should no longer pay for transport to faith schools. In setting this budget, we have tried to retain services, rather than throw in the towel and close them. We have tried to share the pain, but we do realise that there will be extra costs most of us will bear. I very much regret the impact it will have on some. We have continued to prioritise education, social services and support for new jobs, though we cannot ring fence even these services. Nevertheless we have managed to find an additional £900,000 for children's services as demand rises and we continue to pay the living wage which this administration adopted a couple of years ago, as we recognise the burden that falls on the lowest paid. Each year we receive by far the worst funding from the Welsh Government. Even so they have warned they will continue to cut our funding and already council officers have begun to see what else can be done to avoid closing services. It is unlikely we will know how much we will receive from Welsh Government until the summer or later. As we move forward we will continue to engage with you and work with you through what will continue to be some very difficult years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who joined us and took part in our engagement events. Finally, I also want to publicly thank MCC staff. Without their work and dedication, going way beyond what should be expected of them, this budget would have been far more difficult and unpalatable. Councillor Peter Fox (Leader of Monmouthshire County Council)