Local Government Settlement

Written by Jenny Randerson AM and published in Cardiff Post on Tue 17th Jan 2006

This week, the Assembly has debated the Local Government settlement. That is the money the Labour Assembly Government gives each year to local Councils. In short, the less the Council gets from the Assembly Government, the more it has to find from Council Tax payers to top it up.

The bad new is that, for the second year in succession, Cardiff has been given one of the lowest increases in Wales: this has to cover inflation as well as the additional costs of new responsibilities the Assembly Government has given it. The average increase for Councils across Wales is 5.1%, but Cardiff has been allocated only 3.8%.

Despite a similar position last year, the Liberal Democrat run Council managed a slight decrease in Council Tax. However, those of you whose homes were re-banded by the Assembly Government will not have noticed. This year, some people's homes are due to go up by a further band. The effects of this will be reduced for pensioners by the extra £100 assistance to reduce bills which the opposition parties in the Assembly forced on the Labour Government.

By the time you read this, it is likely that news will have begun to filter out about the Council's proposals for Council Tax increases this year. For certain, they are bound to have to make cuts in some services and increase the charges for others, in order to keep the increase within reasonable limits. However, they are determined to make internal savings as well, so that the public does not have to bear the whole burden.

The funding Cardiff gets from the Labour Assembly Government is quite a bleak picture. Despite this, I was delighted to learn that the Liberal Democrat administration is to dramatically extend recycling in the City. Back in the early 90's, Cardiff was known as "Recycling City", leading the way in the UK. In the intervening years, recycling facilities were actually reduced rather than expanded and Cardiff fell to the bottom of the league table.

So it was great last week to be able to tour the new, state-of-the-art recycling plant in Lamby Way. It represents a multi-million pound investment and means that, over the next couple of years, we will all get free recycling collections from our doorsteps. The Liberal Democrat administration plan to put Cardiff once again at the top of the recycling league table. I know this will please my constituents as complaints about the lack of recycling are some of the commonest issues I deal with.