Council issues its response to draft budget settlement

Denbighshire County Council has given a cautious welcome to a slightly better than expected provisional settlement for the authority, announced by the Welsh Assembly Government.

The council will provisionally receive an increase of £3 million (2.4%) in the budget for 2010/2011, but this may change when the Welsh Assembly Government finalises its budget for local government.

Leader of Denbighshire, Councillor Hugh Evans, said: “Although there has been an increase in the settlement, the council will need to take a long and hard look at its budget, as there are areas of increased levels of pressures. Inevitably there will be tough, and in some cases unpopular decisions which will need to be made.

“The situation currently facing Welsh councils is not good news. We have warned that the proposed settlements over the coming years are going to be extremely tight and difficult decisions to make, so we have to consider this increase this year in context.

“The current economic climate is placing tremendous pressures on the council’s budget. In future years we will need to scrutinise our budgets very carefully and consider how we can use the monies available whilst maintaining good value for money services for the county’s residents”.

Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Cabinet Lead Member for Finance, said: “Our considerations will need to take into account the overwhelming calls from members of the public to keep council tax as low as possible. We have prided ourselves on the fact that we have kept council tax increases to a minimum over recent years.

“We are expecting that the budget will result in some reduction in services and we are fully committed to keeping residents informed all through the budget-setting process.”