A Labour-led council has been harangued by furious residents for imposing a “self-serving” tax hike while public services in the area continue to “diminish”.
In the latest meeting on its budget, Flintshire County Council has announced that it will raise council tax bills by 9.5 per cent – despite planning cuts across “vital services”.
Such reductions are planned to impact schools, road repairs as well as the library service – although the council has managed to increase senior salary positions for councillors by 25 per cent in two years, leader of the Flintshire People’s Voice claims.
Blasting the decision, Sam Swash declared that “the pain is being felt in some places but not others”.
Leader of the Flintshire People’s Voice Sam Swash declared that ‘the pain is being felt in some places but not others’
Sam Swash/Facebook
Speaking to the People’s Channel, Swash said: “There’s been a huge drop in local civic pride.
“When the roads are in the state they are, when the class sizes in schools are going up and up and up, when nothing works anymore except council tax bill collection, people are really, really hacked off.”
Adding to the frustration, Swash claimed the same meeting in which the council tax rise was passed, members had also elected to end the meeting early to go home.
Swash chastised the leadership for not only “taking their own chance away to represent their own residents” but also causing everyone else to miss out on doing so.
While the council has attempted to excuse its financial decisions by floating the looming threat of bankruptcy, Swash firmly slammed the claims as “complete rubbish”.
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For a council to declare bankruptcy, it would require “catastrophic mismanagement.”
“They aren’t far off it,” Swash claimed.
Boiling such claims down to “scaremongering” by Labour and Independent councillors, one resident suggested: “The councillors keep claiming that the council is near bankruptcy, with no evidence.
“This is scaremongering by the coalition leadership to try to scare backbenchers and opposition councillors into backing unnecessary council tax rises.
“Of course, if they genuinely do believe that they’ve brought the council to the brink of bankruptcy under their leadership, then that is a huge admission of failure.”
Flintshire County Council has announced that it would raise council tax bills by 9.5 per cent – despite planning cuts across ‘vital services’
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Responding to the news of the tax rise, another local said that the rise was “enough to make you weep” and called for a “full and public audit of the finances”.
Swash stated that incidents like councillors leaving meetings early were not the first examples of “lazy, self-serving” behaviour, as one frustrated resident described it.
The leader of the Flintshire People’s Voice added: “It’s scandalous that they keep [voting to finish the meeting early], and it’s going down very badly with residents as well.”
Swash said that more than 40 per cent of the agenda was left to be discussed and debated during the meeting.
GB News has approached Flintshire County Council for comment.