CONWY is now looking at a 9.9% council tax rise – less than the 12.5% previously mooted.

But the cabinet member for finance warned that the strategy is not without risk.

Whilst the authority will not decide on a final council tax figure until March 2, Conwy’s cabinet and finance scrutiny committee has been disputing the situation for weeks.

Faced with inflation, a lower Welsh Government settlement, and staff pay increases amongst other costs, Conwy is facing a £19.8m shortfall.

Earlier this month, a council report contained a model for a 12.5% council tax increase that was needed to balance the books for next year.

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That figure has now been reduced to a 9.9% proposed increase, and the council is looking at other ways to reduce the rise to 9.5%.

In the latest budget report, the council has found £540,000 from its services’ business cases, £550,000 from energy costs – as they are reportedly dropping – and £465,000 by offsetting expected grants.

Speaking at this week’s special cabinet meeting, cabinet member for finance Cllr Mike Priestley warned the strategy is not without risk.

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“I was here (the council’s Bodlondeb HQ) till 6pm last night and back here at 8am this morning, looking at how can we get a 9.5% council tax (increase),” he said.

“And I think that’s what we need to concentrate on. The political desire is clearly that there isn’t a lot of support for 12.45%.

“In finance, we identified £40K of enforcement fees. We are looking at energy. The way energy is going, hopefully, we can take an amount out of that business case with energy prices hopefully dropping there, but I have to say, as cabinet member for finance, there are risks in there.

“We certainly can manage that risk if we all work together, if all departments work together, and all departments work together starting from the first day of the financial year. We will have to have our finger on the pulse from day one of that budget.”

“So we are looking at energy and grants. We know we’ve got grants coming in, so it’s about offsetting those grants.

“So, basically, we are looking at a gap of £1.5m to get to that 9.9%. It is roughly half a million off business cases,half a million off energy, and half a million off grants. That’s how we could get to 9.9%.”

“So yes, we can come in with a balanced budget of about 9.9% with risk, but we really need to be on day one monitoring that risk, and that allows us not to put any pressure on our revenue and reserves. The team has done its best to get council tax under 10%.”

Cabinet backed the latest budget report, but a final council tax figure won’t be agreed upon until March 2 by full council.