PEMBROKESHIRE could be facing a Welsh Government settlement of £1.3m lower than last year, adding to an expected £2.6m pressure following a decrease in the second homes council tax premium, councillors heard.

Second-home owners, since this financial year, have been paying a 200 percent premium on their council tax, effectively a treble rate.

At the October meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s full council, a call by Independent Group leader Cllr Huw Murphy to lower the premium to 150 percent was successful, despite dire warnings such a drop would lose the council £2.6m in revenue.

It was warned this could lead to service cuts or the shortfall potentially made up by an increase in general council tax rates of some three-and-a-half percent, on top of an expected rise of 11.14 percent next year.

Cllr Murphy’s 150 percent call followed on the heels of a failed 100 percent call by Conservative group leader Di Clements, which it was said would have led to £5.2m pressures.

Cabinet member for finance, Cllr Joshua Beynon had warned: “Every 25 percent reduction [in the premium] would reduce the amount raised by the council by £1.3m; already we have a very difficult financial situation, that is the reality of local government finance, we are stretched in terms of demand for services.”

While council tax makes up a proportion of the council’s annual revenue, a crucial area of funding is the Aggregate External Finance (AEF) rate from Welsh Government, normally announced in December ahead of councils setting the final budgets the following Spring.

While discussing potential changes in the second homes premium and the effect it could have on the council budget setting, Cllr Mike Stoddart stressed the AEF settlement figure from Welsh Government was the “most important aspect of our budget,” which would not be known until later in the year, asking what the assumed figure was.

Director of Resources Jon Haswell said a ‘flatline’ rate had been previously assumed, but the authority was now fearing a potential £1.3m reduction on what was forecast, leading Cllr Stoddart to say: “We’re making a decision [on second homes tax premiums] based on guesswork”.

Last year, Pembrokeshire received a below-inflation 2.5 percent increase on its AEF rate, lower than the Welsh local authority average, amounting to an extra £5.372m on top of the £212.626m received for the-then current financial year.

The previous year, Pembrokeshire had received a higher-than-expected AEF settlement of 7.9 percent, against an expected 3.5 percent.

Awards are made using a formula intended to take account of need and the ability of councils to raise extra funding from council tax.

A call for higher central government funding is to be heard at neighbouring Ceredigion’s full council meeting, taking place on October 24.

WELSH publishers face an existential crisis following a decade of cuts, a committee heard.

Helgard Krause, chief executive of the Books Council of Wales, said cuts in the past year have made it difficult to operate after years of standstill funding.

She also pointed to production pressures with the cost of printed books rising significantly as she gave evidence to a Senedd culture committee inquiry on October 17.

Ms Krause raised concerns about a fall in the number of Welsh-medium books from 185 to 122 in the past decade, particularly in light of the target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050.

Giving evidence remotely from the Frankfurt book fair, she told the committee: “It feels counterintuitive that the thing to help with language skills, namely books, is being cut.”

Asked what would happen if similar cuts were repeated in the 2025/26 budget, Ms Krause stressed that the Books Council passes most of its funding onto the publishing industry.

“For some, the impact is fewer books – for others, it’s an existential crisis,” she said.

Ms Krause warned: “We’re at risk of losing publishers completely.”

She said the Books Council – which has annual revenue of about £3m, half of which comes from the Welsh Government – has sought to absorb cuts over the years by reducing staff.

“When I started seven years ago, there were 50 people working in the organisation,” she explained. “Now, we’re down to 36. This isn’t a proud record but that was the only way of how we’ve been able to cope with standstill funding.”

Ms Krause told the committee that unlike some other culture bodies, the Books Council has not received any extra in-year money from the Welsh Government.

Warning of uncertainty and people becoming more risk averse, she pointed out that not one project sponsored by the Books Council receives 100% of the funding it requires.

She raised concerns about new voices and opportunities for young people being lost.

Ms Krause said: “We are at risk of turning to the old regime where publishing was a little bit a gentleman’s occupation, namely those people who can afford to work in the area.”

She told the committee the profile of people working in the sector remains middle class.

She warned: “We have made some inroads but, when money is scarce and salaries are stagnant, that’s the pernicious impact and we will see this problem in ten years’ time.”

Calling for a ten-year strategic intervention to make Wales a reading nation, Ms Krause urged the Welsh Government to adopt international examples of best practices.

Ms Krause said she supported the principle of the Arts Council’s calls for culture and the arts to become a statutory responsibility.

But she pointed out that libraries are already a statutory duty, yet “we’re losing, across Britain, or have done, thousands of libraries in the last decade”.

She cautioned that the Libraries Act is phrased loosely enough for councils to absolve themselves from responsibilities of providing a library service.

Ms Krause sympathised with the need to protect core services like health and education but she said culture can make a significant contribution to both.

She said: “It is cuts on top of a decade of austerity that makes this such an existential issue.”

Ashley Drake, acting chair of Publishing Wales, which represents publishers, said grant funding fell by about 8% in 2023/24 then a further 10% in 2024/25.

In a letter to the committee, he wrote: “Our understanding is another significant cut is being discussed for 2025/26. Three consecutive cuts on the back of a decade or more of standstill budgets will be catastrophic…. It would signal nothing less than an existential crisis.”

Seren, the independent Bridgend-based publisher, warned the industry faces a real threat.

Bronwen Price, chief executive, and Duncan Campbell, chair, wrote: “As it stands, we are rapidly heading towards a tough decision: either we slash costs and therefore strip out everything that makes Seren Books what it is or face the prospect of closing for good.

“Were that to happen, Wales would lose its last standing significant English language publisher.. It would lose the major societal, economic, cultural, environmental and wellbeing contribution Seren Books makes and will make for future generations.”

PEMBROKESHIRE’S e-bikes scheme trial, which got off to a rocky start with initial limited availability and vandalism, could soon be expanded to other areas of the county through the national park, councillors heard.

Introduced in April, the bikes – positioned in Fishguard and Goodwick, Haverfordwest and Tenby – proved problematic within weeks when fears of vandalism by revellers and mischief-makers forced the authority to cut down their weekend night-time availability hours.

In June, the council reported that the E-bikes were currently unavailable to hire in Haverfordwest ‘due to required repairs’.

The E-bikes are maintained by the scheme provider, Zipp Mobility, with the trial made possible by funding from South West Wales Metro.

In a submitted question heard at the October 17 meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council, Councillor Rhys Jordan asked: “Can the Cabinet Member for Resident Services provide usage figures and an update on the progress of the 12-month e-bike scheme that was launched in April of this year?”

Cabinet Member for Resident Services Cllr Rhys Sinnett said the initial 30-bike scheme had been run out of Tenby, Fishguard and Goodwick, and Haverfordwest and continued to grow despite issues around vandalism in Haverfordwest.

“We expect to add a small number of bikes back around Haverfordwest in the next few weeks; Haverfordwest proved to be a popular location for this scheme and usage proved high, the number of trips increased last month and usage is constant,” Cllr Sinnett said.

He told members that Pembrokeshire Coast National Park had expressed an interest in expanding the scheme into a number of its sites, adding to its own provision in St Davids.

“The national park would like Pembrokeshire County Council to manage the scheme in Broadhaven, Angle, Manorbier, Saundersfoot, St Dogmaels and Newport,” said Cllr Sinnett, adding it was anticipated the original bikes would be relocated to these areas.

He told councillors as many as 50 additional bikes, with extra security features, were expected soon, along with ‘solar tree’ charging facilities, at no additional cost.

He said the scheme had proved to be popular, not only in Pembrokeshire, but with other Welsh local authorities, with Pembrokeshire in discussions with neighbouring Carmarthenshire about that council potentially introducing a similar scheme.

Cllr Jordan, in a supplementary question, asked for further details on the scheme’s funding.

Cllr Sinnett said the scheme was entirely funded by the South West Wales Metro scheme, adding: “At no time have we had any match-funding request,” adding: “The scheme is 100 per cent Welsh Government funded.”

He finished: “Not only does this scheme add to the tourism offer, it also adds modal shift. We should welcome this scheme, not be negative about it.”