'Greatly diminished': Resident demands council tax refund after Covid 'cut services'

Public questions are back on the agenda at Powys County Council after a long pandemic-induced hiatus.

The questions were submitted beforehand and have received a written response from the relevant cabinet member.

The people who have posed them will get to ask an extra follow-up question at the meeting which was taking place on Thursday.

One resident, Patrick Edwards, asked: “Is the council going to refund council tax to council taxpayers for the greatly diminished services it provided during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially as the Government paid 80 per cent of many council workers’ wages through the furlough scheme?”

Finance cabinet member, Councillor David Thomas, said: “The council faced significant pressure and although some services ceased or were limited for a time, most continued to be delivered, many had to adapt to different ways of working in order to keep employees and service users safe.

“Schools delivered hubs to support the children of key workers, and delivered online teaching for pupils, care staff continued to deliver care services to residents in need, social workers continued to support older people and children and waste collection services were maintained.

“Where services did stop, staff were redeployed to undertake other duties such things as welfare calls to our vulnerable residents, track and trace support, enforcement work and other areas where pressure on the council’s services increased.”

Councillor Thomas explained that councils all over Wales were asked to do their bit in helping the Welsh Governments response to the pandemic by distributing support to people and businesses.

He said that £114 million worth of business grants and rate relief schemes were paid out as well as carers, self-isolation, and school meal payments.

Councillor Thomas added: “For many months, the council operated at business critical level because the demands to support the public and the Welsh Government's response were so great.

“The pandemic impacted significantly on the council's finances, additional costs and loss of income was set to push the council into a significant deficit even after fully utilising the funding we receive annually from Welsh Government and collect through council tax.

“We did draw support from the government furlough scheme for the limited number of staff we were unable to redeploy, but we also drew down £29.743 million from the Welsh Government Covid hardship fund which enabled us to balance the budget."