Bust-up over the budget (From Penarth Times)

Bust-up over the budget

DEPENDING ON who you believe, the Vale council has been given a generous budget increase from the Welsh Assembly, or, it's so tough, tax bills may rise and services could be cut.

The political parties are at each other's throats over next year's cash allocation to the Vale.

Both agree on the basics - the council gets a 5.5 percent increase next year. But that's where agreement stops.

Labour AM, Lorraine Barrett, says: "Our Labour Assembly Gov-ernment has delivered a decent settlement for The Vale of Glamorgan Council.

"It is a generous increase in funding of 5.5 percent.

"The Tory-led administration in the Vale should be able to keep people's council tax bills low and maintain good standard of services.

"The people of the Vale will see that the Assembly has delivered a good deal for local people, and will expect the council to respond in a sensible way.

"It's now up to the Tories in the Vale to set council tax levels, and if they behave irresponsibly with taxpayers' money, and impose a huge increase on local people, they can expect a horrified reaction from the residents of The Vale of Glam-organ."

But, according to the leader of the Vale council, Jeffrey James: "This year's settlement is a tough one for the Vale, and insufficient funds have been made available for essential services.

"In addition, the Vale has been particularly hard hit by the revaluation with 44 percent of properties moving up at least one band. This has had a significant effect on the government grant received in the Vale.

"The council will be facing some very tough choices, balancing provision of local services with council tax levels.

"We won't know the level of council tax increase until the New Year, after the council has considered the budget in detail."

l On top of the 3.2 billion settlement announced for local government last month, Sue Essex, Minister for Finance and Local Government, has announced the distribution of an additional 27m.

Vale AM Jane Hutt said: "There is good news also for the Vale under the Business Growth Incentive Scheme. The Vale Council is receiving an extra 1.161m to help business growth."