It has failed to withhold payment for poor performance and rarely checked that it is being correctly charged.

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Delegates had just voted overwhelmingly, virtually unanimously, to support a campaign to withhold the payment of TV licence fees in protest at changes for S4C.

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It also warned residents the law did not permit them to withhold council tax payments, after some asked if they could have refund or withhold payment.

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Although the budget does contain meat, some measures are simply sauce, such as moving three national holidays, delaying the payment of retirement gratuities to civil servants and threatening to withhold Christmas bonuses from underperforming public employees.

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