Residents have responded to plans to increase council tax in Cardiff by six per cent.
Deio Owen and Steffan Lloyd Evans, who live in Roath, have to pay the council tax for a six-bedroom house between them due to living with three students and another working proffesional.
Deio told CJS News that whilst he appreciates the increase is small in comparison to areas like Pembrokeshire, where the council has proposed a 16% rise, he’s struggling to understand where the money will be spent.
He said if the money is spent on local provisions such as social care and bins, not big projects, then he’d be “happier with paying.”
Currently, council tax goes towards paying for local services such as schools, bin collections and libraries.
The annual budget for Cardiff Council is £804m but rising costs and demand for services like social care has left the council with a £30.3m gap in its budget. To bridge this gap, the council proposed a 6 per cent council tax increase during a meeting on Wednesday evening.
More than 9,000 people took part in the four-week consultation on a number of changes the council has put forward.
The council said with the extra money from council tax, it will be able to protect or save a number of services including giving more money to schools and adult and childrens social services.
Alongside a council tax increase, the council have also proposed:
- Black bins to be collected every three weeks
- 10% increase in the cost to hire a sports pitch
- Hubs/Library hours to be reduced
- Community park rangers to be reduced to two full-time employees
- Increase in school meals by 10p
Steffan said that: “I find it difficult as it is to pay council tax. At the moment thee are six of us that are in the house but only three of us pay as the rest our students.
“The six percent increase would mean that people in a similar situation to me, will be affected more”.
If you are the only adult living in a property with one or more people who are exempt from paying council tax you could receive up to a 50% discount.
The six percent increase will depend on what band your property is based. If you are in Band D, for example, you will now have to pay more than £1,800 pounds a year, an extra £1.60 a week.
Alfie White, from Pontcanna, said the increase in council tax will be too much:
“The six per cent council tax rise in Cardiff is ridiculous. It’s already far too expensive.
I’m going to have to cut back a lot. It’ll just make the cost of living even more”
Alfie White
The proposals will go to the Cabinet for approval on the Thursday 29 February.
If agreed by the Cabinet, the Full Council will vote on the proposals on Thursday 7 March.