Tory councillors waved through their spending plans for the coming year in the district on a night of fiery budget debate.

nt they were able to reject each one of their Lib Dem opponents’ alternative proposals for the £27 million budget on Thursday.The Conservatives’ huge majority on Canterbury City Council mea

They will now be able to pump cash into city-changing schemes such as the football hub in south Canterbury, the transformation of the St Dunstan’s area and another park and ride station.

This will be done against the backdrop of keeping tax at its present level and council staff receiving a 1% pay rise – all in the midst of the continuing world financial crisis.

Council leader John Gilbey (Con) described the budget as built on "efficiency and savings" plus debt avoidance.

He told the meeting: "In our management of the present and future, we will continue to enhance facilities and services in this district.

"By managing our costs, working with partners, shepherding our reserves and being ahead of the game we have come through four turbulent years of recession and financial meltdown.

"Any other approach would have led to disaster.

"Despite the challenges, I can confirm that the council is in great shape, facing the future with confidence."

The Lib Dems proposed 11 amendments to the Tory budget.

They ranged from restoring funding to voluntary groups to slashing councillors’ allowances to introducing an extra market day in Canterbury.

Lib Dem leader Alex Leader argued that if his group’s amendments were adopted they would add £25,000 to council coffers.

"Despite promises from government that councils would be allowed freedom to determine local priorities, in reality the only choice open to councils, however well they are being run, is to make cuts, increase some charges – and reduce the size of the workforce," Cllr Perkins said.

"As a result, unprecedented numbers of highly trained staff are being made redundant.

"There are severe cuts across the board and in some areas, like licensing and enforcement, they have been hit so hard by departmental efficiency savings imposed by the need to achieve savings that the majority of staff in those teams have already gone or face redundancy."

Only the 10 Lib Dems and three Labour members voted in support of the budget amendments.

The three-man Labour group on the council did not put forward any amendments of its own, but leader John Wratten voiced his objections to Conservatives’ budget.

He said: "You simply do what Mr Cameron and his cabinet of millionaires tell you to do.

"We used to be a local council which could define our own priorities and then set the budget to pay for them. Now we are controlled remotely.

"Ministers tell us not to raise council tax so we doff our caps and say 'right-ho Mr Cameron, we will do as we are told’.

"It is the richest who gain the most from no council tax rise.

"But the thing we dislike the most is the reduction in grants to voluntary group especially those which serve the elderly."

for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee this summer when the money would pay for two people to be employed for a year by the council.Cllr Wratten added that he believes it wrong to spend £50,000 on celebrations

Only the 10 Lib Dems and three Labour members voted in support of the budget amendments.

The remainder of the 50-seat council, who are all Conservatives, voted for the budget as drawn up by the Tory administration.

The remainder of the 50-seat council, who are all Conservatives, voted for the budget as drawn up by the Tory administration.