Clwyd West MS Darren Millar has condemned Conwy County Borough Council's proposed council tax increase of 6.5%.
In recent years the county has been hit with some of the highest increases in Wales, and Darren believes the council should not be placing further financial strain on residents with yet another increase.
The council's budget discussions are set to go ahead on Monday (February 23rd) at a finance committee before full council will debate the matter on March 5th, setting the council tax levels for the year.
The rise amounts to a band D equivalent increase of around £122.75 a year or around £2.36 a week, with the council taking £115 and North Wales Fire and Rescue Service taking £7.74 approximately.
Commenting, Darren said:
"It is wrong that the local residents are facing another inflation busting hike in council tax while seeing services cut.
"We have seen rise after rise in recent years and quite frankly residents are sick of being forced to pay more, whilst getting less in return for their money.
"It is not right that people in Wales now pay more as a percentage of their income in council tax than over the border in England, in spite of the fact that they have lower incomes here in Wales then they do in England.
"One of the reasons why council tax increases have been depressed and have been lower in England is because local people have a greater say in council tax, because when excessive increases are proposed councils have to go to the public, to put it to a vote in a local referendum.
"We have been calling for this in Wales, but the Welsh Government has rejected our calls.
"A local referendum on any proposed council tax rises of more than 5%, would give the people of Conwy the opportunity to have their say on this inflation busting increase.
"We also need fair funding from the Welsh Government. Their local government funding formula is our of date and does not sufficiently reflect changing demographics or the extra costs of providing services over a large rural area.
"People are struggling daily and to saddle them with yet another inflation busting council tax increase is absolutely shameful."
