GWYNEDD Council’s Cabinet has agreed to a series of service cut recommendations that will now be presented to all 75 councillors at the full council meeting on 3 March.

Following the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the report to the full council will now recommend implementing service cuts worth a total of £4,590,000, cutting the roads budget by £850,000 and increasing council tax by 3.97 per cent rather than the 3.5 per cent originally planned to bridge the remaining shortfall.

Neuadd Dwyfor in Pwllheli and the Lloyd George Museum in Llanystumdwy could be saved under the new budget.

The cabinet’s recommendations are based on the results of the recent extensive Gwynedd Challenge public consultation exercise where more than 2,100 residents and organisations submitted their views on a total of 118 possible service cut options.

The cut recommendations, along with a proposed council tax increase of 3.97 per cent, will be presented to the full council meeting as the best possible strategy for bridging the remaining funding shortfall of £5.5m the authority faces.

If the council agrees to a council tax increase of 3.97 per cent rather than the 3.5 per cent it had originally planned, it will mean that Gwynedd will be able to protect more important public facing services that would otherwise have to be cut.

Gwynedd Council leader Cllr Dyfed Edwards said: “It is a matter of fact that 75p out of every £1 that Gwynedd Council has available to deliver our local services comes directly from the government.

“As this government funding is continuing to be cut, like councils across the UK, Gwynedd has no choice but to implement service cuts simply to balance the books.

“As a council, we are doing everything we can to protect those services that are considered most important by Gwynedd residents.

“That is why we recently completed the most comprehensive public consultation exercise ever carried out by the council to see which services the public valued the most and wanted us to protect if at all possible.

“All 75 Gwynedd councillors have looked closely at the views presented by more than 2,100 Gwynedd residents and groups, as well as detailed submissions from specific sectors in a series of workshops.

“Having considered all the evidence presented by the public, organisations and the views presented by councillors at these workshop sessions, as a cabinet we have drawn-up a series of recommendations that will be presented to the full council who will now have the final say on which services to cut.

“The last thing any of us wants to do as councillors is cut services.

“However, we believe these recommendations strike the best possible balance between protecting the services that local people prioritised in the Gwynedd Challenge consultation, protecting the services that are important for a particular area or sector and the impact of Council Tax increases on Gwynedd households.

“This budget provides an opportunity to consider the future of some services such as Neuadd Dwyfor and Amgueddfa Lloyd George, as well as providing an opportunity for communities to come forward with proposals for us to consider regarding services in their area.”

The final decision on the council tax level for 2016/17 and the cuts that the council will have to implement in order to balance its budget will be taken at the full council meeting on 3 March.