Plans to increase council tax in Cardiff and charges for a number of services, including the cost of residential parking permits, have been approved.
Cardiff Council debated and approved the local authority’s budget for 2025-26 on Thursday, which will see council tax go up by 4.95% in the city.
A large portion of the council’s savings will also come from job cuts. Posts will be removed through non-replacement of vacancies and voluntary redundancy.
The council is also setting aside extra money in a number of areas, with schools, children’s services and social care among the biggest receivers of revenue spending.
Money is also being set aside for tackling inner city fly-tipping, drain clearances, improving parks and supporting community events.
Opposition groups put forward alternative budgets at Thursday’s full council meeting which included proposals such as diverting money from cycle lane developments to fixing potholes and trialling an alternative recycling method to the sack-sort system which is being rolled out currently.
The Conservative group proposed to increase council tax by 2.47%, re-introduce community skips and scrap the council’s plans to get rid of free parking in parts of the city.
Conservative councillor, Cllr Jayne Cowan said: “If ever there is a year to keep council tax below inflation, surely it is this one.”
She called the council’s decision to get rid of two hours free car parking at a number of locations, including Rhiwbina, Whitchurch and Llandaff, “cruel”.
The proposal, which was announced last year, was called anti-business by the Conservatives and led to public opposition and petitions which gained thousands of signatures.
Conservatives group leader, Cllr John Lancaster, said his group’s proposals would “put more money in peoples’ pockets” and protect frontline services.
Again, the group proposed the privatisation of waste collection services, with Cllr Lancaster arguing other authorities do this and there are services in the city, like leisure, which are already run privately.
He added: “Why should waste be any different?”
As part of their alternative budget proposals, the Liberal Democrats suggested trialling an alternative recycling collection method to the council’s sack-sort system which has proved controversial among some residents.
Speaking at the full council budget meeting, Liberal Democrat councillor Joe Carter said residents are “watching our streets get dirtier” and called the new recycling system, which involves residents sorting their waste into separate containers and sacks instead of putting it all in one bag “chaotic”.
He and the group leader, Cllr Rodney Berman, also said the council should have gone further with its support for schools and proposed the local authority look again at multimillion-pound plans to move to a new headquarters.
The Liberal Democrats group also said they wanted to increase the long-term empty homes council tax premium by 300% for properties which remain vacant for 12 months or more.
Currently, the policy is that properties attract 300% premiums if they remain empty for 36 months or more.
Cardiff Council’s cabinet member for finance, Cllr Chris Weaver said the Conservatives wanted to use reserves to fund a smaller council tax rise.
Council leader Huw Thomas called the 4.95% rise being put forward by his administration one of the lowest increases in Wales.
Cllr Weaver, addressing Conservative councillors, added: “You want to risk our medium financial stability to go further.”
On the Liberal Democrats’ proposal for County Hall, Labour councillors argued staying in the building poses a high financial risk to the council and moving to a new site would cost less than addressing the renovation and repairs backlog which the current headquarters faces.
Cllr Weaver said: “All your proposal would do is cost the taxpayer of Cardiff needless money.”
Cardiff Council was initially facing a budget gap of more than £60 million. Following a better than expected budget settlement from the Welsh Government, this was reduced significantly.
Cllr Thomas said: “All of this has been made possible by a better than anticipated budget settlement with Labour governments now in Westminster and in Cardiff Bay with a shared commitment to public services, seeing it as an asset to be invested in not a commodity to be cut.”
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