Council budget passes key vote that sees council tax rise – amid fiery debate on children’s services spending

A Council Tax rise of almost seven per cent was backed by councillors last night in a heated meeting, with the Labour group not supporting the plans after raising questions again about an ‘overspend’ in Children’s Services.

For the second year in a row, the budget included an increase of 6.95 per cent for ratepayers, which amounts to an extra £85 per year for an average band D property.

The council’s administration has said the budget will allow investment in frontline services, with an extra £3.5m earmarked to go into social care following a critical inspection report on children’s services.

Speaking at last night’s virtual meeting Leader of the Council, Mark Pritchard, said the changes were being introduced after Wrexham was awarded the second lowest settlement by the Welsh Government.

He argued that a rise of 6.95 per cent was “aimed at protecting council services and jobs as much as possible for both next year and moving into the future.”

Cllr Pritchard said: “It has been more difficult this year to arrive at a balanced budget, given the extremely low settlement that has been received by the council from the Welsh Governments.

“However, the budget I am recommending was built in some additional resources for service to the vulnerable, while affording a degree of protection to essential services.

“I am disappointed and quite sad that once again, we we have received a very low settlement and the second lowest in Wales.

“If you look back at the settlements that we’ve had, since austerity, we haven’t had a good funding settlement from the Welsh Government for a long time.

“I hope that changes, there’s an MS election in this year and I hope that there’s a change of heart. But we will continue to bring a budget in and we’ll continue to deliver services, we’ll continue to support staff and we’ll continue to invest in essential services.”

The Council Tax rise was backed by a majority of councillors from across the political parties, with leader of the Conservative group, Cllr Hugh Jones stating that the council was facing two “unpalatable options”.

Cllr Jones said: “We either vote for an increase that adds burden on our Council Tax payers, or we cut those services that leader has referred to in terms of libraries, social care, and children’s services.

“These are services that impacts on the most vulnerable in our community, the very people that we are elected to protect.

“As a local authority, we have been in terms of the amount of council tax we raise, very much at the bottom end of the scale.

“We are now struggling to maintain those essential services, particularly in terms of social services, adults and children’s social services, education and the environment – all of which are crucial services.

“Therefore I think we in many ways are paying a price for that lower level of tax increase over recent years.”

Leader of the Plaid Cymru group, councillor Marc Jones, said he would be supporting the budget as despite the council tax increase, it includes investment into children’s services.

He added that his group had “consistently argued” for the council to reduce expenditure on the number of executive board members and other allowances.

Cllr Jones said: “Given the economic uncertainties, it’s going to hit people very hard.

“That said, we do recognise that significant extra funding is going into children’s social services and that’s a must, because this service has only just moved from of serious concern to being inadequate.

“That’s an essential service, especially in these times, that demands extra funding.

“That’s why because despite all the reservations we have about the rise in Council Tax at a time when many Wrexham residents are struggling, Plaid Cymru, as a group will support this budget.

However the budget came under fire from members of the Labour group, with councillor Malcolm King rejecting support due to an array of bafflement.

He said: “I have to say one of the reasons I can’t vote for this is that I don’t really understand where we are, despite repeated questioning, and I don’t understand either the process or the end result or where we’re going or the maths of it, and some of the concepts used I don’t understand either.”

Leader of the Labour group, councillor Dana Davies gave the bleakest assessment and raised concerns about the “financial risk” as a local authority.

She said: “Part of our budget setting process involves consideration of financial risks, the impact and what financial provisions we have to make and take forward into next year’s financial year.

“We currently have a financial risk of £8 million pounds overspend in children’s services.

“For the record, have attended every budget workshop and raised this overspend at numerous workshops and also at the executive board. We’ve asked numerous questions about this overspend with extremely limited information received.

“There’s a real real concern about openness and transparency as we are asking for information and not getting any of the details.

“We only really know that this overspend links to out county placements in the Children’s Services departments where demand has increased by 60 per cent, though the cost has increased by 250 per cent.

“There’s been no detailed report to explain the overspend, how the overspend has been paid back, whether the spend actually meets the needs of the children, or if that significant spend is going to continue into the next financial year. I’ve asked that question. I haven’t had an answer.”

Cllr Davies fired a range of related questions to Cllr Pritchard, asking when he became aware of the projected £8 million overspend in children’s services and what action he took, if it was made via a delegated decision and why councillors were not made aware.

She added that up that the Labour group would not support a budget with an ‘£8m failure’ that ‘the taxpayers of Wrexham’ would have to help cover.

Deputy Leader councillor David A Bithell disputed the lack of transparency claim, pointing to a monthly monitoring report that “goes out to all elected members every month with the up to date financial position”.

He added that he and others “have been challenging why the overspend as escalated during the financial year” but pointed to the pandemic as a possible context.

Cllr Bithell said the comment on the lack of transparency was ‘awful’ and took it as personal criticism of ‘one of the best senior officers within the council’.

Conservative councillor Andrew Atkinson picked up the baton and also fired back at Cllr Davies, describing her comments as a “very highly politically motivated as a way of using children’s services to just have a bash this evening with some of the language that was used, about the service about failures and the like, and the way that those words like failures were used, and I don’t think that’s acceptable”.

Speaking on the budget element of the service, he added: “We know it’s a very difficult, almost impossible budget to manage at times, we know just how difficult it is.

“So I would never as lead member say there will never be an overspend, but I think we’ve done everything we possibly can with the injection of money in the plan that’s in place to make sure that we’ve got the best possible chance of delivering the best possible care that we can.”

Councillor Paul Pemberton followed on the theme of the comments, calling the finance officer a ‘top guy’ and ‘did not deserve’ comments made by Cllr Davies.

Cllr Davies interjected with ‘a point of clarity’ noting that her comments and questions had been directed to the leader of the administration, not at a council officer.

Cllr Pritchard picked up on the points raised by Cllr Davies, inviting further correspondence in response, stating: “Cllr Davies has asked me a direct question with regards to openness and transparency.

“If your question in the openness and transparency of this council, I suggest you send an email to myself as leader of the council, challenge the chief executive on it, and the chief finance officer.

“Because if you’re challenging me, you’re challenging the senior team as well. I can assure you, there’s no wrongdoings and there’s nothing wrong with this council at a senior level from the chief executive Ian Bancroft, down to his six chief officers, openness, transparency, professionalism at its best.”

Although not addressing the specific questions, he did refer to children’s services and spending, adding: “Children’s services overspend, under spend, it’s a departmental pressure of children’s services and I would rather have money taken out of reserves to protect the young children of Wrexham and put them into care and make sure that in a safe environment, than not spending that money.

“We are all corporate parents. While I’m here as an elected member, I know that I have full support of everybody I’ve spoken to, that they’ll continue to invest in children’s services.”

“There hasn’t been enough money put into children’s services for a long time. We inherited this, but what we are doing is we are working towards funding it appropriately.

“I’ll say this to Cllr Dana Davies and to Cllr Malcolm King: You can abstain tonight, you can sit on the fence, you can make all the excuses you like.

“But, if you don’t support this budget this evening, and that’s your choice, you are saying that you don’t support investments in children’s services, that you don’t want to invest in education in schools. What do you want to invest in?”

The budget passed the Full Council vote with a majority of councillors voting in favour of the Council Tax rise and budget.

The budget passed the vote with 35 in support, opposed by 11 councillors made up of the Labour group present and Independent group’s Cllr David Maddocks. There were two abstentions from Conservatives Cllr Paul Roberts and Cllr Rodney Skelland.