A large council tax hike remains likely for Carmarthenshire, and although changes to the proposed budget have been agreed by the Plaid Cymru-Independent cabinet following a consultation which more than 2,900 people responded to - a planned 9.75% council tax rise from April hasn’t altered.

It would mean Band D households paying £1,759.07 in 2025-26, which doesn’t include the Dyfed-Powys Police precept or any community council precept. Final spending decisions will be made at a meeting of full council on February 26.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on February 17, Cllr Alun Lenny said the proposed 9.75% council tax increase was higher than cabinet members would have liked but that it struck the right balance in protecting key services and enabling the authority to sustain and invest in them in the future.

Among many planned savings and revenue-raising measures was one for above-inflation car parking charges, which would have brought in an extra £219,000 over three years. The council had also proposed saving £125,000 by transferring 14 public toilets to other organisations or closing them if this couldn’t be achieved.

It was also looking at £170,000 of cuts to road repairs and gully cleaning, plus £30,000 flood defence savings. Cabinet has now rowed back on all these proposals following the consultation and feedback from councillors.

The budget report said the council now has an extra £1.2 million to spend due to falling energy costs, and plans use £1 million in order to borrow money. But it is having to set aside more cash for potentially higher inflation and wage increases than it had anticipated.

Cllr Lenny, cabinet member for resources, said: “Adopting these proposals allows cabinet to present a fair and balanced budget to county council which responds to the views fed back from the consultation. However I must emphasise the inherent risks within the (budget) strategy. As always there are uncertainties over future pay awards and inflation.” There were also “delivery” risks associated with savings measures, he said, around half of which would need to come from adult social care.

The council, like others in Wales, faces demographic pressures as well as inflationary costs but is in line to get additional funding from the Welsh Government. It needs to make savings, increase council tax and some fees and charges to balance the books.

Also, from April, public sector bodies as well as private sector employers must pay higher national insurance contributions. There is an expectation of central government compensation for councils, potentially in June, but uncertainty over whether this would extend to workers, like domiciliary carers, which it commissioned rather than employed directly.

Council leader Darren Price said the council faced a £3.5 million bill for higher employer contributions for these commissioned workers, and that the proposed council tax increase would have been 6.25% without it.

“That is the stark reality – there is no hiding away from that fact,” he said.

The report also said the draft budget for 2025-26 included schools not having to make £3.5 million savings, which was “balanced against a much higher council tax level than would otherwise have been required”.

Day-to-day departmental expenditure on things like education, social services and waste collection is forecast to be £524.6 million in Carmarthenshire next year, nearly £35 million more than the approved budget for the current year.