Vale of Glamorgan Council will go ahead with plans to reduce street cleaning, remove litter bins and increase council tax by 5.9% as part of plans to save millions of pounds.
The local authority met on Monday evening in order to debate and vote on its budget for 2025/26, which set out a number of proposals to close a financial shortfall of £8.77m.
As part of its savings plans, the council will also go ahead with introducing new parking charges, increasing charges for garden waste collections and putting more buildings up for community asset transfer.
A number of areas will also be getting additional funding, particularly those with high levels of demand, with schools and social services being the biggest areas of spending for the local authority in the next financial year.
Council leader Lis Burnett, pointed out that about 71% of a £331m budget would go on schools and social services, adding: “It is a budget that matches the risks we face, but it also matches the corporate plan that we have just agreed.”
However, the council’s plans came under heavy criticism from opposition councillors.
Plaid Cymru group leader, Cllr Ian Johnson, said that apart from the spending figures relating to social care and schools there was “little to welcome”, noting the cuts to non-statutory services.
The council recently announced that it intended using additional funding from the Welsh Government to finance a smaller increase in council tax, which was initially proposed to go up by 6.9%.
Cllr Johnson said he agreed with the council’s decision to use additional funds on lowering the council tax rise. However, he added that it showed to him there was a “gulf” between the money that was needed and what was available to the council.
Plaid Cymru councillor Chris Franks also criticised the council for cuts to non-statutory services, calling the council’s litter bin proposals a “scandalous policy”.
Last November, the council announced that it had commenced a review of litter bins in the county in a bid to increase recycling levels and combat fly-tipping.
As part of the 2024/25 budget, 25% of litter bins were removed. The council will now go ahead and reduce the number of litter bins in the Vale by a further 25% for 2025/26.
Vale Council recently announced that it would carry out further evidence gathering work before pressing ahead with that proposal and plans to close Court Road multi-storey car park in Barry.
Businesses and local councillors said the car parking charge scheme would have a major impact on trade. However, the council hopes it will increase the turnover of cars at seaside hotspots and help it pay for the maintenance of resorts.
Plaid Cymru councillor Mark Hooper pointed to the off-street car parking charge proposals that would still be going ahead and said these would also have an impact on businesses.
The car parks affected are Portabello and Westfarm in Ogmore, the Knap and Bryn Y Mor in Barry and Penarth Cliff Walk.
Conservatives group leader, Cllr George Carroll, also criticised the council’s car parking charge plans, the proposed removal of litter bins and reduced street cleaning.
He said “people are paying more for worse services” and added that the Labour administration was “focusing on the wrong things” in reference to what he called “bureaucratic waste” and diversity, equity and inclusion work.
Cllr Carroll called the 5.9% council tax rise unnecessary and suggested that the council could use reserves in the short term to keep it down.
Independent councillor for St Nicholas and Llancarfan, Cllr Ian Perry, said the council needed to plan ahead more and think about how much resources it needed for street cleaning and keeping active travel routes clear.
He said: “There is mud on roads that’s not been swept, we are losing litter bins.”
Cllr Perry also pointed out that there was mention in the council’s corporate plan on how it intended to keep streets clean, but he contrasted this with the “amount of litter that’s piling up” in the area.
“It is a big problem, but there doesn’t seem to be any plans for tackling litter in Wales [or] in the UK. You go to Europe and it is spotless in places… so what is wrong with our society?”
At a Vale Council scrutiny committee meeting in February, one local authority official said the removal of some litter bins would help tackle the issue of their misuse.
Recycling bins will also be installed at a number of locations across the Vale. A council press release published last November stated that there were 915 litter bins emptied and sorted each week in the county at that time.
The first phase of the litter bin removal process this year will involve the removal of 192 bins.
The council’s cabinet member for neighbourhood and building services, Cllr Mark Wilson, said: “I don’t want people to panic. If people have got problems getting to a bin, let your local councillor know. Let me know."
“The plan is to transform our bins, mostly into recycling bins. Any member can either come to me, email me if you have got real concerns."
"Clearly we have targets to achieve. I have efficiency targets to achieve, but I want our council to be the most efficient, most effective council and I believe we are.”
Cllr Burnett said: “We spend money on things that we know matter to people. In 2018…£317,000 [was] spent on potholes. We haven’t got this year’s figures yet although they are higher, but in 2023/24 we spent £1.17m on potholes, so please don’t criticise what we spend."
“This year with the local government forum initiative we will be spending even more. This budget does what it says. This budget delivers against the corporate plan we agreed.”
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