MONMOUTHSHIRE will likely suffer a budget gap of £482,000 for next year’s budget despite another planned council tax increase.

The plans, which are still in very early stages, outline the current situation ahead of the setting of the 2018/19 budget.

A special meeting of Monmouthshire County Council’s (MCC) Cabinet tomorrow will take place, allowing councillors to view a draft proposal for the next financial year’s budget.

The budget gap figure includes a 3.95 per cent increase in council tax, while a growth of properties should equate to an extra £530,000 income per annum.

The draft budget proposals also include a transfer of more than £1m from the county council’s reserves.

The proposals are being released after a drop in the Welsh Government’s provisional Aggregate External Financing of one per cent, a move previously described as “disappointing” by the leader of MCC, Councillor Peter Fox.

Public consultation on the plans will begin in December, with final budget proposals to go before another special Cabinet meeting in mid-February 2018. The rate of council tax and the 2018/19 budget will be set at a full meeting of MCC on 1st March 2018.

Ahead of that consultation the Conservative group has already stated that it will not be recommending to council proposals for blue badge holders to pay at car parks, and neither will they be taking forward proposals for parents to pay for the child care element included in the charge for breakfast clubs.

Recognising the need to help people of all ages with disabilities to modify their homes with adaptations, the Conservatives are again recommending putting another £300,000 into that fund next year.

Cabinet Member for Finance, Cllr Phil Murphy commented: “We have had so many years of funding reductions from the Welsh Government, it is extremely difficult to set budgets now without having an impact on services to the public. Despite that we try to respond to our priority services such as education and social care.”

Cllr Fox added: “It is particularly exasperating to battle with cuts imposed by Labour in Cardiff Bay whilst at the same time the assembly is given an extra £2.3 million to run their administration and the Welsh Government is holding over £300 million in reserve with no specific purpose.”