Council members have voted to freeze council tax next year despite calls for a "modest reduction".
Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) yesterday met and agreed on the final budget proposals put to them.
As well as a freeze on council tax, councillors agreed to contribute £2.5 million of its £495 million gross budget to ensure care workers receive a Real Living Wage.
A significant portion of funding will go towards child care and education, with £1.5 million a year set to go towards primary, secondary and special needs schools.
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Children’s social services, safeguarding and foster care will receive an extra £1.2m a year, while an additional £650,000 a year will be directed towards supported living services aimed at people with learning disabilities.
The freeze on council tax and rise in spending has largely been made possible by the 9.2 per cent increase in funding from the Welsh Government.
Speaking at the council meeting on Wednesday, Independent Alliance Group Leader, Alex Williams, said the level of the Welsh Government's provisional settlement was a welcome sight.
He said: "I think I can speak for the majority of colleagues across the whole council in saying that I welcome the local government settlement, which provides an additional £19.6 million, or a 9.2 per cent uplift to the local authority's budget.
"This is very welcome news, given the fact that we were expecting a more modest budget settlement."
However, he expressed a desire to go further and called for a reduction in council tax.
The Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) presented to the council stated that the total amount collected from council tax has increased by almost 60 per cent over the last 10 years.
According to Welsh Government figures, Bridgend has the sixth highest average council tax level per dwelling at £1,649 (2021-22) - £104 higher than the Welsh national average - across all 22 authorities.
Referring to the figures in the MTFS, Cllr Williams said: "Those living in a band D property will be paying in excess of £302 for their council tax and this is a huge financial burden.
"Many people will know that this is the second highest financial burden after peoples' mortgages and rental payments."
While he was pleased to see a freeze, he added: "I and some of my colleagues don't feel that it goes far enough to alleviate the financial burden on the cost of living crisis, which the Deputy Leader has rightly mentioned.
"I and my colleagues would like to have seen a modest council tax cut, not a freeze, after years of council tax increases."
Speaking after the meeting, Conservative Group Leader at BCBC, Cllr Matthew Voisey, also noted that the provisional settlement from the Welsh Government was good, but added that he believed the council missed an opportunity to lower council tax.
He said: "It is not to go unnoticed.
"I feel very sad for Bridgend council tax payers, who are in the top [end] of council tax payers in Wales.
"I believe there was [room for a reduction]."
In response to Cllr Willaims' proposal, the Chief Officer for Finance Performance and Change, Carys Lord, said: "From my position as the 151 officer I would strongly advise you not to reduce the council tax.
"There is an issue that if you were to do that we would have to identify further reductions to services in order to fund it, and I also think that if we lost money from our council tax base, we would find it difficult to make that up in the future.
"Although we have an indicative allocation for the two years after the coming financial year, the increase isn't anywhere near as good as it is for the coming financial year and there are a lot of cost pressures that this council are going to have to meet in that period.
"To take money out of our base budget at this stage would mean that council tax increases for residents in Bridgend would have to increase significantly in the future years."
Elsewhere in the budget, funding for Education and Family Support services will total £131m, social care and well-being services will receive £78m, and public realm works such as parks, street cleansing and the collection and disposal of waste will receive £22m.
Transport planning and regeneration will receive £2.2m, while £1.7m will be invested in regulatory services such as Licensing, Environmental Health and Trading Standards.
The Council's capital budget, which incorporates £6.8m of Welsh Government funding will make an extra £2m available for the refurbishment of the highways network.
There will also be £1.9m made available for disabled facilities grants, £1.1m for minor works, and £400,000 for street lighting and bridge infrastructure renewals.
Council Leader Huw David said: “The challenge of setting a balanced budget of this size lies in ensuring that we have sufficient resources in place which are capable of delivering services effectively while keeping people safe and remaining fair to taxpayers.
“In developing and agreeing this budget, I believe that we have achieved this for the people we serve, especially as we have also been able to incorporate a healthy programme of capital investment for both the coming year and future years, including our 21st Century school modernisation programme, new childcare facilities, major road renewals, and regeneration projects in our town centres.”
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