Powys residents are facing a double whammy of increased council tax bills with fewer services.

Council chiefs are set to discuss budget plans for the next financial year in which they propose upping council tax by 3.9 per cent and only collecting black bin bags once a month as the authority looks to cut costs.

These proposal is part of a package of cuts and savings proposals in the draft Powys County Council budget worth a total of £11.828 million.

An increase in council tax will bolster the coffers by £3.3m while a raft of cost reductions have been proposed in an attempt to balance the books.

This year’s list of cuts includes proposals by the highways, transport and recycling departments to save £164,000 by reducing rubbish collection and driving more recycling.

The report explained the proposal and said: "(To) extend the three weekly residual waste collection to four weekly, whilst retaining the 180-litre bin provision.

“Recycling collections will remain a weekly service.”

The report believes that the change will “help encourage even more recycling”, but products such as nappies and incontinence pads will be a problem and may need to be collected “separately” and “more often”.

Fears that this could see an increase in fly-tipping will be minimised by “awareness and enforcement”, the report says.

Powys council’s Cabinet is set to meet on Tuesday, 26 January when plans for the increase in council tax are expected to be discussed, the total budget for the 2021/22 will be £280.664m, £11m more than the current financial year.