Wrexham Council to be asked to contribute an extra £96,935 to fund region’s fire service

North Wales’ six councils will be asked to contribute an extra £700,000 to fund the region’s fire service for 2020/21.

A recent meeting of the North Wales Fire and Rescue Service approved the budget which will see the authorities up their contributions by 2% – meaning an overall budget of £35,941,854.

All six north Wales councils contribute money every year towards the cost of providing fire and rescue services.

How much the county councils contribute depends on how much the authority has estimated it will need to cover its running costs, with 72% or £27.7m of total expenditure being spent on staff –  which assumes a pay award of 2% for all employees.

As a result Flintshire, which contains 22% of the region’s population, will pay an additional £177,721 which brings their contribution up to £7,968,197.

Wrexham, meanwhile, which has 20% of the population, will pay an extra £96,935, and Gwynedd will contribute an extra £137,376 in line with its population share of 18%.

The report, which was approved by authority members meeting in Conwy, notes: “The planning process has confirmed a net expenditure requirement for 2020/21 of £35.9m which is a year on year increase of 2%.

“The budget proposal for 2020/21 increases contributions from constituent local authorities by £0.7m.”

By Gareth Williams – BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme)