Like all the other local authorities in Wales – and most of you - we are currently wrestling with our budget for the coming year, with some seemingly impossible sums.

Twelve years of austerity and the cost-of-living crisis have pushed Monmouthshire families over the edge.

More children are needing to be taken into care, schools are struggling to support children in real hardship, and we have more families threatened with homelessness than ever before. It is often the young and the elderly who are paying the price of failures.

But is it not all bad news.

Thanks to a better-than-expected settlement from the Welsh Government we are going to manage to maintain services in every town in Monmouthshire.

We are going to keep open museums, leisure centres and libraries despite higher costs.

Nor are we going to cut refuse collection services, and most fees and charges will only rise in line with inflation.

Despite all difficulties, we are determined to continue to protect the most vulnerable in the community, to address inequality, de-carbonise where we can and keep the services that people value and rely on.

Dignity in old age is vitally important to us.

Despite some funding increases it is a huge challenge to serve our rapidly increasing number of frail, older residents. But we have already developed a positive relationship with the Aneurin Bevan Health Board so that we can play our part in preventing people needing hospital care in the first place and helping to get them home or into appropriate care if they have been hospitalised.

Again, our schools are facing large increases in energy and other costs. We propose to fund 97 per cent of these costs.

The key to all this is to change the way some services are delivered to get better value for money. As an example, we will be investing in affordable and temporary housing to reduce the use of bed and breakfast facilities.

We are continuing to follow our values. Energy costs have tripled to but we will save more than half-a-million pounds next year by moving away from fossil fuels and saving energy.

We know that Council Tax increases bear heaviest on working families, so are proposing below-inflation increases and one third of households in Monmouthshire will benefit from reductions or exemptions.

And in a series of county-wide approaches we are asking our residents for feedback.

But unlike other local authorities, we have no over all control.

We know our plans are responsible and reasonable. So we will be asking independent and opposition councillors to support our proposals or to come to us with fair alternatives. In such extreme times and circumstances, it is vital that members across the chamber to act responsibly and come together.