RESIDENTS are facing a near 5 per cent jump in council tax bills in Middlesbrough after councillors agreed their budget.

A meeting of Middlesbrough Council rubber-stamped the move which had been previously passed by the authority’s executive committee.

It means those living within in the local authority area will see their council tax increase by 4.99 per cent making the basic amount of Council Tax paid by a Band D home £1,566.81 for 2018/19.

However the actual bill will be higher as this doesn’t include levies from other bodies including the police which is also looking to increase its charges.

At Wednesday night’s meeting Middlesbrough Mayor Dave Budd said the rise was necessary partly because of a budget gap nationally in social care which ran into billions of pounds.

Outlining the proposals he said: “Today’s budget is not in isolation from the rest of the country. The present state of local government finance. Austerity has been here since 2010.”

Opposition councillors had tried to present an amendment to the budget put together by the Middlesbrough Independent Councillors Association the Conservatives only to be told it could not be done at this late stage.

The Conservative councillor for Marton West, Chris Hobson, said the amendment would mean not only a freeze in council tax, but also “a small saving”.

She said: “We now set out our proposals which will not only give a council tax freeze but will also could make a small saving – something previously unheard of in Middlesbrough.”

However Cllr Nicky Walker, the executive member for finance and governance, raised a point of order saying that any amendments to the budget at this stage could not be voted on as they would not have been costed and would, therefore, potentially be illegal.

And she was backed by both Bryn Roberts, head of legal and democratic services and acting head of finance, John Shiel.

Closing the Middlesbrough Town Hall meeting, Mayor Budd said: “None of us want to do this, that would be ridiculous.

“This is not a Labour Party deal. All local authorities are having to do this for one simple reason – the Government is cutting our funding.”

The budget was passed with 28 voting for it, eight against and two abstaining.