LIBRARY closures and black bins being emptied just once every three weeks could be on the cards as Wrexham Council looks to make cuts of £9 million.

At the same time, council taxpayers could be hit by an increase of up to six per cent as the authority tries to plug the gap in its budget for the next year.

It comes after the council received a lower than expected provisional settlement from the Welsh Government last week, which represents a reduction of 0.6 per cent.

Council leader Mark Pritchard has warned that frontline services could be severely affected by the decision from Cardiff.

He said: “From a political perspective, this is a wicked, disastrous settlement that we’ve had from Welsh Government.

“It puts unbearable pressure on services throughout this borough.

“This time will be the most difficult and dark time for us as a local authority because we’re going to have to revisit every department within this council again for efficiency savings.

“I think there’s a north and south divide here.

“If you look at the settlement North Wales has received from the Welsh Government, they should be ashamed of it.”

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

A consultation called ‘Difficult Decisions’ is set to be launched to gauge the views of the public on Wednesday, October 24, on the latest round of savings for 2019/20.

It will include proposals such as reducing black bin collections from every fortnight to once every three weeks, as well as giving residents the option of either a five or six per cent council tax increase.

The council’s new chief executive, Ian Bancroft, has also criticised the settlement it was given.

He said: “What we’re saying in the budget consultation is we don’t think this settlement is fair and we’re now going to need to look at some major changes over the next two years to manage our budget.

“We’re going to ask about waste collection in terms of whether there are some options there that the public would consider more preferable.

“We’re going to ask about libraries in terms of whether they would prefer us to look at one area of the borough or the whole of the borough.

“We’re also going to ask about council tax as well.

“It’s one of those areas we wouldn’t have wanted to go into it, but because of the settlement we have to look at it.”

The consultation will run until November 28.

After it closes, all responses will be analysed and fed back to councillors in December.

The executive board will then decide which proposals to take forward in January 2019.