WREXHAM Council has stressed that no decisions have yet been made after it agreed to launch a consultation on cuts of around £9 million in the next year.

Members of the public will now be invited to have their say on a number of proposals, including a potential council tax increase of six per cent or more.

Other possible changes on the cards include library closures and black bins being collected once every three weeks, following what the authority’s leader Mark Pritchard described as a ‘disastrous’ settlement from the Welsh Government.

The council’s executive board has also warned that some services may be stopped completely unless more money is forthcoming from Cardiff after it received a 0.6 per cent reduction.

Outlining the consultation process at a meeting yesterday, deputy leader Cllr Hugh Jones (Cons) said: “This report is not about a final decision on the budget, it’s about a consultation process and it’s about the opportunity for our residents in Wrexham to have their say.

“Based on all the indications Welsh Government had given us, we were looking for a period of relative stability to enable us to sensibly plan over a period of two years rather than lurch from one year to another.

“What we’ve now found at this very late stage is Welsh Government have come out with a settlement which is significantly worse than they had previously indicated and as a result we are now having to make some changes.

“We were looking to save something like £11m over a period two years, we’re now faced with £18m over two years. That’s a £7m difference over a two year period on top of over £40m of savings this council has already made.”

Cllr Phil Wynn asked the leaders of the Labour, Plaid Cymru and Liberal Democrat groups to lobby Assembly Members for more money.

Addressing Labour leader Dana Davies, he said: “I believe probably the most influential person here today is yourself as leader of the Labour group and also Marc Jones as leader of the Plaid Cymru group because I’m hoping that you have the ears of the government.

“I would hope that you will play your part in any way in consulting with the powers that be in Cardiff that if there are any additional monies floating around in Cardiff that they do come to local government.

“It would be remiss of me not to also ask Cllr Alun Jenkins as leader of the local Liberal Democrat group not to canvas Kirsty Williams as the only Lib Dem AM on the Welsh Assembly, and also the portfolio holder for education, to actually do whatever she can to make sure that whatever money is spare in Cardiff Bay does flow into the coffers of local authorities.”

Cllr Davies responded: “In the last week and a half I’ve had eight meetings with ministers.

“As you know, there’s also £30m for social care and it’s clear from 22 local authorities that any additional funding needs to be without caveats because we’re talking about core services at the moment.”

Members unanimously approved plans to go out to consultation on the cuts.

The formal process will start today with people invited to have their say by November 28. All responses will be fed back to councillors in December, before returning to the executive board on January 8.