The leader of Vale of Glamorgan Council said this year's budget setting process, arguably one of the most difficult in its history, was "horrible". During the months leading up to the council meeting on Monday, March 6, which saw the council's budget voted through, officials were sitting down for regular meetings where numbers were crunched and difficult decisions were made.
Following a better than expected budget settlement from the Welsh Government, the council is facing a budget deficit of about £9m. However, the gap the authority was facing was more than triple that much before receiving its grant. When we really bottomed it out, I have to say, I felt sick", said the leader of the Vale council, Cllr Lis Burnett, when asked how it felt when the reality of potentially having to close a £28m gap became apparent.
"When we first faced it that was when we were saying we don't know how we are going to do this without cutting back to statutory services." That's not to say that the £9m gap is seen as something which will be easy to deal with. As part of its budget, the council approved a 4.9% council tax rise.
