A PROPOSAL over a council tax rise of between 4.5 per cent and 5 per cent has prompted an angry response.

Addressing the meeting of the Anglesey County Council’s Executive on Monday afternoon, Cllr Robin Williams proposed consulting the public on the council tax hike which would be in line with the 5% maximum recommended by the scrutiny committee members.

The council’s Executive met to launch a formal consultation on the authority’s budget for 2020/21.

It followed a meeting of the council’s corporate scrutiny committee which discussed funding shortfalls being made up by a mixture of cuts and rate hikes.

Cllr Robins said: “Having done some quick calculations, compared to our nearest neighbours in neighbours, a Band D property’s council tax bill is currently £127.65 cheaper on Anglesey than Gwynedd.

“Were Gwynedd to raise theirs by 4 per cent and us by 5 per cent, ours would still be £121 a year cheaper, which is something we should bear in mind.”

A public consultation to seek the views of island ratepayers will now be launched, and taken into consideration when the final budget setting process happens in February.

However, more than 30 Chronicle Facebook readers already responded with anger to a report by the Local Democracy reporting service of the meetings.

Sandra Llan, Eurwyn Jones and Nathan Jones all called it an “absolute disgrace”, while Hugh Lloyd Roberts said: “It went up 9 per cent last year, and for what street lights and bins !!!”

Bryn Morris said: “So that would be almost a 15 per cent rise over two years and probably another 5 per cent next year, we will be averaging nearly 10 per cent a year increase. That seems like an inefficient council to me.”

Huw Roberts said: “Maybe instead of taxing locals to the limit, the council should look at increasing taxes on second homes in the area?”

David Roberts said: “Think it’s time to set up our own independent scrutiny group to find out where and why our tax is being spent AND who is deciding”. Jonathan Edwards added: “So I take it they’ve decided to surrender any pay rise this year?”said Joe Jones. “At least half your council tax goes on subsidising underpaid pensions. Has to stop.”

See the full LDR story online.