Bridgend Council’s Cabinet has published the final 2024-25 council budget (pdf).
The budget is set to be debated and put to a vote next Wednesday (28th February 2024).
The amount the council needed to find in cuts and savings – just over £13million – was down by around £3million compared to the draft budget, giving the council a little more wriggle room, but not much.
Use the drop-down menu to move from section to section.
The 9.5% increase in council tax is set to go ahead. This means the average Band D council tax bill will increase to £1,834.41 (+£159.15).
The South Wales Police precept – set by the outgoing Commissioner, Alun Michael (Lab) – will increase by just under 8.7% (+£28.20 at Band D).
South Wales Fire Service was recently taken over by Welsh Government-appointed commissioners following a damning internal culture review.
Before being taken over, the proposal was for Bridgend Council’s annual fire service contribution to increase by just under £446,000 (taking it to £8.97million).
As with last year’s budget, there are a lot of proposed changes to fees for council services (pdf).
- School meal charges will increase by 30p.
- An 11% increase to in-house care home charges.
- Garden waste/green bag subscriptions will increase to £50 (£45 for pensioners).
- Bulky waste collection charges will increase to £30.
- Burial and internment charges will increase by 20%.
- Marriage ceremony charges will increase by 15%.
- Registrars will now charge £2 for postage of certificates and a £25 “save the date” booking fee.
- There will be a charge of 50p per KWh to use council-owned electric vehicle charging points.
- Fees will be introduced for school music service training, though this will be negotiated with schools.
- Charges will be introduced for previously free pest control services: rats (£59), mice (£61), bedbugs (£110) and cockroaches (£95).
Here’s what the 2024-25 town & community council precepts look like (pdf):
As you can see, there are some big changes.
Bridgend Town Council continues to charge the highest precept overall – almost 40% higher than the next closest, Cefn Cribwr – and has increased its precept by a double figure percentage.
However, one of the county’s smallest community councils – Merthyr Mawr – has increased its precept by almost one and a half times. As it’s so small, this is expected to raise only around £5,000 in total.
There are other double-figure percentage increases at Maesteg Town, Coychurch Lower, Porthcawl Town and Pyle. Four other councils have made more modest sub-1% cuts.
The only noticable cuts to precepts are in Ynysawdre, Cefn Cribwr, Llangynwyd Lower and Ogmore Valley.
Taken all together, the council tax and precept situation looks like this:
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