A PUBLIC meeting was held in the Beaufort Arms Hotel, Raglan, to protest about the 13% Council Tax rise which has brought the increase for taxpayers in Monmouthshire to 36% over the last 12 months.
County Cllr Graham Down and County Cllr Andrew Crump were present to explain the facts and figures. It appeared that the main reason for the large increase in Monmouthshire was political. As Monmouthshire is the only Conservative controlled council, despite very determined negotiations Monmouthshire County Council were unable to come to a satisfactory settlement over the allocation of funds with the Welsh Assembly.
Margaret Richards told the meeting that despite repeated requests the Assembly would not furnish her with the figures to explain how they allocated the funds for Monmouthshire.
Glyn Pring asked what the Council were doing to ensure that there were not huge increases every year and said that political differences should be put aside to find a way to deal successfully with the Welsh Assembly.
Former councillor John Huntley of Chepstow, a leader in what is becoming a Council Tax revolt, said the sooner a return was made to the old county boundaries and disposed of all the small unitary authorities the better. Present increased bureaucracy was enormously expensive.
Local farmer Dewinton Jones thought that everything had gone wrong since the Assembly became responsible for local government.
Builder Paul Goodman said the protest meetings were becoming an annual event to no avail.
Usk businessman Steve Musto said Monmouth-shire should not accept that they must subsidise other councils.
Cllr Andrew Crump told the meeting that Mon-mouthshire was being penalised and that by not allocating sufficient funds to the County, the Assembly were raising taxes by the back door- powers they did not possess.
Howard Cook asked if the Council taxpayers of Monmouthshire could expect increases of up to 20% very year. Cllr Crump replied, "I'm afraid so."