The leader of Monmouthshire County Council has lamented over the ‘massive distortions’ in funding which he said amounts to the ‘worst settlement’ in Wales.

Councillor Peter Fox said Monmouthshire’s rural status meant money handed down from Welsh Government did not stretch far enough as far as urban councils are concerned.

Monmouthshire County Council recently completed consultation on its budget proposals for 2020/21, and found almost £10m in ‘pressures’ owing to increased demand for services, and the costs of carrying out those services, meant ‘savings and efficiencies’ loomed.

A council statement said:

“This is set against a back drop where the council, once again, will be the lowest-funded council in Wales by a country mile.

“Local politicians continue to make the case for a fairer deal from the Welsh Government but this continues to fall on deaf ears.”

Peter Fox, Leader of the Council, said the funding issue was ‘fundamentally wrong’ and called for a rethink.

 “Again, we see massive distortions in the funding received by some councils in comparison to others.

“We are holding minimum safe reserves whilst many better funded councils retain huge reserves.

“It doesn’t take much to work out there is something fundamentally wrong with the system that shares out the money.

“Like other councils our main costs are our employees, teachers and care workers.

“We should receive the same level of funding to meet those same costs.

“We continue to press the case for fair funding for Monmouthshire from the Welsh Government.

 “Currently we still have a gap of around £500,000 to fill in our plans and we will continue to look for ways to balance our budget without drawing off our scant reserves before we reach the deadline, by law, to set a balanced budget by March 5.”

Councillor Fox has long argued for a rethink of the funding formula which accounts for the cost of providing council services across a rural county.

Councillor Phil Murphy, cabinet member in charge of resources, said: “This coming year the Welsh Government has once again allocated Monmouthshire County Council the lowest increase in funding of any council in Wales at just three per cent. This is in stark contrast to several other councils getting increases of well over 4.5 per cent up to one of our neighbours getting a whopping 5.4 per cent. This just can’t be right.

 “We have argued for a minimum level of four per cent so we can at least meet our workforce pressures and keep council tax down. Despite the worst settlement in Wales we remain committed to maintaining investment in our schools and into services for the most vulnerable in our society.

“These must be our priorities. As a consequence it is with a heavy heart that we are proposing a 4.95 per cent council tax increase.

“If the Welsh Government do recognise the inequity of our settlement and give us a little more we will seek to lessen the burden on our hard-pressed council tax payers.”