A PLANNED council tax increase in Newport has been reduced from four per cent to 3.5 per cent.

Proposals to outsource domiciliary care to a private company have also been scrapped under Newport City Council’s revised budget for the 2017-2018 financial year, while an extra £1.1 million will be handed to the city’s cash-strapped schools.

The budget was discussed at a meeting of the council’s cabinet yesterday, Monday, where leader Cllr Debbie Wilcox said the two issues had been those raised the most frequently during the consultation period.

But she said the council’s financial position remained challenging following a lower than expected financial settlement from the Welsh Government.

“It is without doubt a very difficult position,” she said.

“However following consultation we have been able to deal with the key concerns raised buy the public in Newport and other consultees.

“That is really positive.”

The extra investment into schools, which equates to an additional £40 for each primary school pupil and £67 for each secondary student, will be funded by the council’s reserves while the 0.5 per cent decrease in the council tax increase will be made up from a surplus in the budget.

But Cllr Bob Poole said, with the UK Government’s continued austerity agenda, he remained concerned about the future.

“We have been told this ‘aint nothing yet,” he said.

“We have to run public services and we are getting very near the point where it will be impossible to do so.”

But the council’s cabinet member for finance and resources Cllr Mark Whitcutt said the authority was “not about setting about public services with an indiscriminate axe.”

A 3.5 per cent increase in council tax equates to about £34 extra a year for a Band D property.

Although plans to scrap services for children with challenging behaviour in Newport’s secondary schools will go ahead, schools will have the option to use the extra cash to keep their specific services open. A proposal to scrap the X16 bus service, which runs from Risca to Cardiff via Rogerstone and Marshfield, will also go ahead as planned.

The budget, which can be viewed at newport.gov.uk/budget, will go before the full council at a meeting at 5pm on Thursday, March 2.