WREXHAM Council has been accused of failing to consult with backbench politicians over a potential increase in council tax.

Residents in the county could be set for a rise in their bill of up to six per cent as the authority looks to plug a budget gap of £9 million next year.

It’s one of a number of possible measures being considered, including bins being collected just once every three weeks, after it received a worse than expected provisional settlement from the Welsh Government.

However, Cllr Marc Jones, leader of the Plaid Cymru group, has accused the council’s 10 executive board members of keeping the plans secret from the 42 other councillors.

He said: “On Wednesday the media was briefed about the executive board’s budget plans and proposals for 2019-20.

“The proposals have a suggested council tax rise of either five or six per cent.

“I don’t believe I’m breaking any confidentiality in saying that arguments for and against a significant rise were made from the floor and yet councillors were given no indication from the leadership that a five or six per cent was being put out to consultation the very next day.

“We’re clearly not one council when the majority are excluded from meaningful and honest debate.”

Last week, council leader Mark Pritchard (Ind) warned that frontline services could be severely affected by the budget decision from Cardiff.

Wrexham Council has made around £34m of cuts in the last five years and nearly £60m since the economic crisis began in 2007/08.

But Cllr Jones believes executive board members have been excluded from spending cutbacks.

He has called on the 10 leading councillors to pay for their own iPads, which are currently funded by the taxpayer, and to refuse a proposed salary increase put forward by the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales.

He said: “Plaid councillors are voluntarily refusing to take any pay rise and are paying for their council iPads.

“As a gesture towards recognising the difficult decisions to be made, we believe all councillors should do the same.

“It’s a small gesture but it would save more than £90,000 over the five-year term of this council.

“More immediately we could cut the current executive board to seven members, saving more than £40,000 a year.”

Wrexham Council said it had no comment to make on Cllr Jones’ claims.