Council leader warns of service cuts unless Government increases funding

Council leader, Rosemarie Harris, and members of the Cabinet travelled to Cardiff yesterday (thurs) to plead with the Welsh government to urgently review local government funding to give rural councils the support they need to maintain essential service.

They said increased support was needed to acknowledge the cost of providing essential services such as schools and social care across a large geographic region.

Figures given to the government showed the county's transport to school bill was more than £10 million and it had to maintain more than 5,000 kilometres of roads.

Powys has seen funding fall by 20 per cent as a result , the cabinet said, of austerity and changes to national spending.

This was at a time when pressures, particularly within social care, were on the increase the councillors said.

Councillor Harris said: “We are not asking for special treatment but for recognition that delivering services in Powys is far more costly than urban areas and needs more funding to provide a level playing field.

“The council has played its part reducing overall spending by £100m in the last decade and increasing council tax, last year by 9.5 per cent, to the point where it now makes up 30 per cent of our net income – the highest proportion in Wales.

“Without changes to the funding formula or an increase in the county’s annual financial allocation, the county council will be forced to reduce service delivery and residents will rightly complain they are paying more for less."

The council has carried out what it says is a stark analysis of the difference between urban and rural service delivery costs.

Finding include Powys being the most sparsely populated county in Wales, with only 26 people per square kilometre compared to the Welsh average of 150 per kilometre.

Over half of its residents live in villages, hamlets or dispersed settlements - 58.7 per cent compared to the Welsh average of 17.1 per cent.

More than a quarter of premises in Powys are unable to receive 30 Mbit/s of broadband with 17 per cent only getting 10 Mbit/s.

In education Home to School Transport is currently £10.4 million per with 28 per cent of primary children travelling more than two miles one-way to school and 52 per cent of secondary pupils travel more than three miles one-way to school

“We are asking Welsh Government for fair play. Our residents should not be asked to carry an extra burden because they chose to live in a rural county. Powys deserves fairer funding to support essential public services,” Councillor Harris said.