Would several pounds added to your council tax bill to help balance Fire and Rescue Authority budget be ‘excellent value’ ?

Wrexham Council’s contribution to the fire service could increase by more than £375,000 in the next 12 months.

The increase features as part of proposals by the North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority as is faces the “unusually difficult process” of setting a balanced budget for 2019/20.

Earlier this year Wrexham.com reported that controversial plans to cut the number of Wrexham’s engines, along with changing the hours of the county’s second whole-time fire appliance to cover daytime hours only, had been put forward as one of a number of proposals before the North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority as it looked to plug an expected £1.9m budget gap.

It was the second time such cuts had been put forward for the county borough.

However in June 2018 it was announced that the proposed cut to Wrexham’s fire provision had been ruled out for the upcoming budget plans.

Now ahead of the final budget being drafted in December 2018, a public consultation has been launched over proposals to increase the contributions from the six North Wales councils to provide an additional £1.9 million to cover the authority’s costs.

Currently the bulk of the authority’s annual budget is provided by contributions from all six North Wales Council’s – with the remainder being made of financial reserves and other income.

Over the past three years the authority says it has “avoided passing on the full cost to county councils and relied instead on using some of its reserves”.

But now it is estimated that there will be a £1.9 million shortfall in next year’s budget – something which could be provided by increasing the contribution from county councils.

Wrexham’s contribution in the current financial year is £6,654,624 – the second highest of any council in the region. This is based on population figures, with Wrexham contributing 19.87 per cent of the North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority’s overall budget.

However if proposals to increase the overall cost from council’s are given the go ahead, an additional £377,273 would be provided by Wrexham Council.

Locally this could result in an increase of £7.08 (0.65%) on council tax bills for a Band D property.

As part of the consultation a series of questions are posed to the public over whether funding from county councils should increase, if this should be raised through a council tax increase and how the fire and rescue authority could reduce its running costs in future years.

Councillor Meirick Lloyd Davies, chair of the Fire and Rescue Authority, said: “Not only are we facing some unavoidable cost increases in 2019/20, but we also need to make up for the fact that contributions from the county councils over the last three years have been kept low by taking money from our own financial reserves instead.

“Whilst using reserves in this way has worked well in the short term, the true cost of providing services has continued to increase gradually and we are reluctant to risk spending our financial reserves and leave nothing to fall back on.

“The decision we now face is whether to increase our budget by the full amount next year, and so increase the contribution from the county councils by almost £1.9 million, or to increase the budget by a smaller amount and implement cost savings so we do not risk running out of money mid-year.

“Any decision to reduce costs is going to be difficult but having carefully weighed up the alternatives for ensuring a balanced budget next year, members are minded not to pursue large scale savings as the level of risk would be too high at this time.

“Whilst we have not ruled out making savings, the scale of savings in 2019/20 would stop short of closing fire stations or making firefighters redundant.”

You can find out more about the consultation process on the North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority’s website / have your say here. Comments can be submitted until November 2nd.