BARRY Town Council (BTC) rubber-stamped a 2.4 per cent council tax precept increase after opposition councillors banded together to oppose a 10 per cent rise .

Plaid, Tory, and Independent councillors resisted the Labour party’s 10 per cent proposal which would have left an average band D household paying £5 extra a year.

The council is required, under law, “to maintain adequate financial reserves to meet the needs of the organisation.”

At the February 5 meeting, Labour BTC leader, Cllr Bronwen Brooks, proposing the 10 per cent precept increase, said: “£5 a year is not a lot of money.”

She said the council had funded projects including seeking advice on the Biomass plant, improving the Cemetery and the Christmas lights.

Cllr Brooks added: “This council has ambitions for the future. These are not drawn up on the back of a fag packet.”

Plaid opposition leader, Cllr Shirley Hodges said her party had gone through the budget “line by line” and arrived at an alternative 2.4 per cent proposal.

Independent Court ward councillor, Richard Bertin said: “Ambition is not a 10 per cent budget” and Tory councillor Vince Bailey said the proposed hike was “totally unacceptable,” adding that “many families struggle to pay council tax as it is, without being asked to stomach a rise that’s almost three times the rate of inflation.”

Cllr Johnson said his group “were shocked” by Labour’s plans to increase the precept by 10 per cent “when there was no need to do so.”

Labour’s 10 per cent precept rise was defeated 11-9 before Plaid Cymru’s alternative budget was passed 9-0, with Labour and some Conservative councillors abstaining.