The Interim Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to provide Council with details of the council tax requirement for the County Borough Council, together with the requirements of the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales and Community/Town Councils, and to seek Council approval of the Band D council tax for Bridgend County Borough Council and the community areas for 2021-22.

The report firstly gave some background information following which, in paragraph 4.1, the Net Revenue Budget was outlined for 2021-22, approved previously at today’s meeting.

The net budget requirement for Bridgend County Borough Council for 2021-22 is £298,956,245, and the amount to be funded from Council Tax is £86,764,691 as shown in Table 2 within the report. This equated to a Council Tax of £1,597.01 on a Band D property, an increase of 3.9%. This proposed increase of 3.9% equates to 77p per week for a person living in a Band A property and £1.15 per week for someone living in a Band D property (62% of properties in Bridgend are lower than a Band D).

The Interim Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change advised that the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales has notified the Council that their precept for the financial year ending 31 March 2022 will rise to £15,631,672, which equates to a council tax of £287.72 on a Band D property, a 5.5% increase. The 2021-22 precept was agreed by the South Wales Police and Crime Panel on 3 February 2021.

For the 2021-22 financial year, the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales has stated that the amounts to be levied by the Council in respect of policing services, in accordance with section 40 of the Local Government Act 1992, were as shown for each of the categories of dwellings shown in Table 3 of the report.

Table 4, then reflected the Average Council Tax increase for 2021-22, including a Band D property average.

Paragraph 4.6 of the report detailed the average Council Tax increase for BCBC (inclusive of each of the precepting bodies).

Tables 6 and 7 then included, therein, the Total Average Band D Council Tax requirements, 2021-22 for each of the BCB Community/Town Council areas.

A Member queried the increase, adding that a 3.9% increase in Council Tax was regrettable. She based this on the fact that Covid had brought about unprecedented times that had resulted in many residents throughout the County Borough having lost their jobs, resulting in them having difficulties paying their mortgage, with some even having to visit foodbanks to try and make ends meet. For reasons such as this, she was of the opinion that the increase in Council Tax for 2021-22 should be no higher than the rate of inflation.

She also asked if, in future such annual reports on the Council Tax, the number of properties in all Council Tax Bands could be broken down into the number that are in each of the different Bands, or preferably by percentage per band.

Members agreed by way of assent, to vote on the recommendations of the report, the result of which was as follows:- 

For:

Councillors SE Baldwin, JP Blundell, NA Burnett, RJ Collins, HJ David, P Davies, PA Davies, J Gebbie, RM Granville, G Howells, M Jones, M Kearn, DRW Lewis, JE Lewis, JR McCarthy, D Patel, B Sedgebeer, RMI Shaw, CE Smith, SG Smith, JC Spanswick, G Thomas, DBF White, PJ White, HM Williams and RE Young.   =  26 Votes

Against:

Councillors T Beedle, M Clarke, SK Dendy, DK Edwards, T Giffard, A Hussain, B Jones, A Pucella, KL Rowlands, R Stirman, R Thomas, T Thomas, E Venables, S Vidal, MC Voisey, L Walters, CA Webster, A Williams, AJ Williams and J Williams  =  20 Votes

Abstentions:

Councillors S Aspey, N Clarke, CA Green, RM James and KJ Watts  =  5 Votes

The recommendations of the report were therefore carried.

RESOLVED:                            That Council approved:-

·         a Band D Council Tax for Bridgend County Borough Council of

£1,597.01 for 2021-22, and

·         the Council Tax charges for Band D properties for 2021-22 for

each of the community areas as outlined in Table 7, within the report.