The South Wales Argus has reported that Councillor Matthew Evans branded the latest proposals from Newport City Council for a 6.7% council tax rise as "..outrageous".
The Conservative Leader of the Opposition said that Newport's residents' can ill afford to pay more for reduced services, and that local authority decision makers needed to "get their priorities right!".
Whilst the council tax makes up only a proportion of the council's income, a rise of 6.7% still means families will have to find more out of the household budget to pay for the additional expense.
Matthew was quoted as saying that the council “sounds like double-glazing salesmen, saying it is only a few extra pounds a week – the reality it’s another £100 a year for a standard Band D property, which residents can ill afford. Residents are fed fed up of seeing payments go up while service provision goes down, from bin collections to streetlights – they even want to reduce libraries”.
The proposed budget increases will go out to public consultation until February the 5th, although the figures the public are actually consulting on are relatively small as most of the budget savings were delegated at the cabinet meeting in November.
The Conservatives will continue to hold the council to account with it's budget cuts and proposed council tax rises, whether its in the chambers or through the various scrutiny committees that the councillors sit on, and will always work to put the residents of Newport first in ensuring they get value for money from Newport City Council.
