CEREDIGION County Council paid more than £6m in interest on loans last year, the Cambrian News can reveal.

But the council’s level of spending on interest is still dwarfed by that of Pembrokeshire County Council, which paid almost £11m in interest last year, and lower than Powys County Council’s interest spend of £8.5m last year.

Ceredigion County Council’s spending on interest was a slight increase on the 2014-2015 spend of £5.7m, but lower than the 2013-14 interest expenditure of £7.2m.

The vast majority of the interest, £5.1m, was from Public Works Loan Board, which lends money to local authorities for public work.

A Ceredigion County Council spokesperson said: “The council prioritises capital expenditure each year on its assets and projects using funding made available from Welsh Government.  

“The interest cost relates to all previous years’ schemes and is also funded in the budget through the annual revenue settlement. Ceredigion has received a significant annual reduction in the allocation of ‘Capital’ programme funding.

“However, these loans relate to projects that have benefitted Ceredigion even before Local Government reorganisation in 1996."

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