A funding cut for Ceredigion County Council will mean the council having to decide if it can continue to provide many services, the authority’s leader has warned.

The council discovered it was facing a 0.3 per cent funding cut from the Welsh Government under provisional settlement figures.

While that is the lowest of the cuts that will be imposed on the 15 councils across Wales that are facing funding reductions, council leader Ellen ap Gwynn said it was more bad news after the council had been forced into a series of cuts to make savings in recent years.

The authority’s budget has reduced by £38m since 2012, a cut of more than a quarter of the budget.

Cllr ap Gwynn said: “Annual cuts imposed from central government have meant that Ceredigion’s budget has been reduced by 26 per cent – £38m – since 2012.

“Although further additions for education and social services are ostensibly included, it is obvious from the negative settlement awarded to Ceredigion that no new money will accrue.

“The further cut that Welsh Government is imposing on the council for 2019/20 is an extremely disappointing settlement, especially as we have to fund a long-awarded uplift to the salaries of all our staff, including teachers, together with an uplift in pension payments.

“We have already had to make difficult decisions that have affected some of our services due to the continuous austerity cuts suffered over recent years.

“We have, and are still, working very hard to ensure that essential services continue to be delivered to as high a standard as possible.

“This settlement means that continued difficult decisions will need to be made as the harsh cuts over the last few years continue to take their toll."

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