Right now, council officials in Gwynedd are in the middle of preparing their budget for the coming fiscal year. Details are sketchy still, but residents in the county should reasonably expect of increase of between 6 and 9 per cent.

That’s seems to be the norm across our country.

In Carmarthenshire, the council there is planning an increase of 6.5 per cent.

In Powys, officials and councillors are looking at a 7.5 per cent increase in their tax bills.

And in Ceredigion?

Well, the bad news is that is that it wants to hit its residents with a huge tax increase of 13.9 per cent. That’s the highest proposed increase in Wales.

The good news? The good news is that residents of Powys, Carmarthenshire and Gwynedd don’t live in Ceredigion.

Sure, the average increase in funding handed to councils across Wales was 2.8 per cent. In Ceredigion’s case, it was 2.6 per cent.

So, in effect, are the councillors and officials in Ceredigion telling us that difference of 0.2 percentage points equates to a tax rise double those expected in its neighbouring counties?

That’s simply financial clap trap from a council that has failed the people of Ceredigion for a long time.

Simply put, Ceredigion is being mismanaged. And has been for a long time.

Gwynedd has a Plaid Cymru run council and seems to be doing much better. It manages to build homes and be proactive in its policies. And its demographics are not dissimilar.

Not so in Ceredigion. The Plaid majority seems enthralled with the benefits of power but fails to take any responsibility.

What CEO Eifion Evans says, goes for Plaid Cymru.

It is a shambles. A disgrace. And merely for writing these words, there will likely be a complaint from council leader Bryan Davies council to the Independent Press Standards Organisation. What else does he do?

Ceredigion doesn’t like criticism.

It doesn’t like being held to account.

And it doesn’t like taking the tough decisions that might mean lessening the tax burden on the people of the county.

Every councillor needs to take a long hard look at themselves, at their responsibilities, and at their duty. It’s to the people of Ceredigion.

Not Eifion Evans and co.