For the second consecutive year the Liberal Democrats have broken their 2022 election promise to lower council tax for our residents and go nowhere near a 5% increase.

For the second year in a row, they have ignored the views of more than half of all residents who responded to their budget surveys saying that council tax should not increase by more than 5%

The net result for our residents and businesses will be much worse than the 7.5% council tax increase proposed as the Liberal Democrats continue with their underhand “back door” council taxes such as car parking charges , blue badges etc whilst presiding over deteriorating public services.

With inflation at 4% and predicted to fall further is it fair to raise such large sums from our residents to address the crisis in our public services brought about by their mismanagement of funds and services.

This budget is potentially littered with unintended consequences as it has not been thought through and all matters considered. Taking one example of the proposed closure of one of the pupil referral units which shows one figure for proposed savings – there is no detail behind this figure such as what is the impact to our children of long bus journeys to the remaining Pupil Referral Unit whether that be Newtown or Brecon , will this lead to more children, our most vulnerable children missing out on a formal education and being left to sit at home or wander the streets, will this add pressures to other children services, are there potential staff redundancy costs etc What price has been put on these factors?

We cannot continue to lurch from one crisis to the next – you deserve better;Powys deserves better.

County Councillor Peter Lewington
Newtown West