CLAIMS that the Welsh Government is giving ‘Overly generous annual settlements’ to some local authorities in the country while others have to ‘watch every single penny’ have been made by the leader of Monmouthshire County Council in a report on the County’s latest financial performance figures.

The Council’s cabinet is considering a report on the Council’s financial performance for the financial year 2018/2019. The report highlights a budget underspend of £49k on a net expenditure budget of £139.6 million, excluding precepts and levies collected on others behalf.

 According to a council statement, the report flags a number of areas of spend where significant pressure continues to show, mainly the growth in numbers of children being looked after by the Council.

In addition, funding additional learning needs for children in Monmouthshire schools and increases in costs to provide free home to school transport for pupils are also claimed to be stretching resources.

The report states, ‘These three areas alone saw cost increases of £2.436 million during the year which have been managed by achieving savings across other areas of the Council.

 ‘Over and above this, a small number of schools are reporting significant year-end deficits which governing bodies will have to address this year.’

 Councillor Phil Murphy, cabinet member for resources said ‘Everybody realises how difficult it is to manage public finances in the UK right now and in England we are starting to see Councils fall over.

‘I am pleased that yet again we have managed to deliver our agenda within budget. We are not making easy choices and the outlook for the next few years is challenging unless Welsh Government decide that local government in this country matters to them and that rural counties start to get a level of financial support commensurate with delivering services in large sparsely populated areas.’

Councillor Peter Fox (pictured), leader of the Council added, ’It cannot be right that some Councils in Wales have in excess of £100 million of unallocated reserves and continue to get disproportionate levels of grants from Wales Government on top of an overly generous annual settlement whilst we watch every single penny.

‘It’s time to sort this out and Assembly Members and the Welsh Local Government Association need to rise to this challenge. In the meantime we will continue to run one of the most efficient, effective, high performing Councils in Wales working with and for all citizens of Monmouthshire.’

However, the Council’s Labour Group Leader, Dimitri Batrouni placed the blame firmly at the door of central government stating, ‘The local Conservatives do not like the medicine their London colleagues have handed down to them. Austerity is devastating public service budgets across the country and Monmouthshire’s services are not exempt. You only have to look across to England to see local Tory councils go bankrupt due to Conservative austerity. We need to end the cuts, so councils can get proper funding and ease the burden on local taxpayers.’

Monmouthshire, along with four other Welsh local authorities, saw the largest decrease in funds from Welsh Government of 0.3%.