Conwy council tax rise: Bid to use schools cash rejected

Councillors were told £1m earmarked for school investment could help plug the budget shortfall

Conwy councillors have rejected the cabinet's bid to soften the blow of a council tax rise by using £1m earmarked for new school buildings.

The ruling Independent/Tory coalition had wanted to limit an expected 11.6% increase to 9.6%.

Opposition councillors rejected the idea, saying the £1m would be better spent protecting services.

A final decision on the county borough's budget and council tax will be made by the full council this month.

Cash-strapped Conwy is facing a budget shortfall of £15.2m and has had to cut services.

Last September it became the first local authority in Wales to bring in monthly bin collections, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Conwy took another hit with the announcement last month that it could expect a cut of 0.3% in the money it gets from the Welsh Government.

To balance the books, Councillor Sam Rowlands wanted to use some money from the budget for new schools.

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Greg Robbins, a Conservative member representing Mostyn, defended the plan, saying the money was unlikely to be needed for new schools until 2022.

But Nigel Smith, an independent councillor from Kimnel Bay, argued that any extra money which could be found should be used to protect services.

"Year after year, we've looked to our departments to make the difficult decisions and they've been making the savings for us," he said.

"The pressures are not going to get less and I think that money could be better spent on other things.

"We've taken the easy decisions in the past and maybe we've got to step up to the line now."

Members of the finance committee voted by nine votes to eight against recommending the 9.6% increase to full council.