At the time of writing, we nervously await publication of the county council’s spending plans for the forthcoming financial year. Having seen two recent shambolic consultations on speed limits and most recently, on Monmouth Library, which was paper-only and lasted just two weeks, I’m concerned about how much attention will be paid to public feedback.

The council published its draft budget plans last month, with council tax projected to increase by 7.8% and a range of cuts proposed for key services. The draft budget was published against a backdrop of massive overspends in social services and two thirds of all Monmouthshire schools facing financial deficits by the end of March.

Monmouthshire once again received the lowest percentage increase of any council in its funding from Welsh Government, at just 2.8%. But instead of challenging Welsh Government over the poor settlement, senior councillors shared their ‘relief’ at the settlement, which gives Monmouthshire around £54million less than the average Welsh council. If Monmouthshire were funded to the same level as the highest funded council in Wales, we would have an additional £98million every year. It’s astonishing to think of the difference this could make to our education and social care services and other visible services like waste collection and road repairs.

A number of better funded councils than Monmouthshire are sat on obscene levels of usable reserves, RCT £269million, Caerphilly £222million. It’s immoral that these councils are putting up taxes on working families, while sat on reserves of hundreds of millions of pounds of public money.

The administration’s budget consultation included a gap of £2.86million that they were confident would be bridged by Welsh Government. It turns out that much of the gap has not been covered and the administration may now be forced to consider additional cuts to services that weren’t included in their winter consultation. A stronger challenge to Welsh Government and effective co-operation with other rural councils could have delivered a better funding settlement.

This feels very unfair to residents who may now face additional cuts to services that were never put before them as options for consideration as well as a council tax rise even greater than 7.8%. In the coming days our Conservative team will be scrutinising these final budget plans closely and will work to protect the services they rely on and encourage senior councillors to cut excessive bureaucratic costs and avoid passing the burden for their failings to taxpayers.