COUNCIL tax payers in Stockton will pay 2.9 per cent more on their bills after councillors agreed the hike following a heated debate.

Members voted 38 to 12 in favour of the budget on Wednesday night.

The plan includes a £170m investment programme for schools, roads, housing and schemes such as the new crematorium, off Junction Road, and Ingleby Barwick Leisure Centre.

It also includes £2.5m of extra borrowing to fund more repairs to the Globe Theatre.

The Conservative group opposed the tax increase and group leader Cllr Matt Vickers said: “I think it is completely unfair, irresponsible and downright wrong – from pensioners on fixed incomes to young families getting on their feet, everyone is paying 17.5 per cent more (since 2015).

“You continue to spend hundreds of thousands on promotion and printing, you continue to spend £700,000 on councillors’ allowances and expenses while refusing to support reductions in councillor numbers – and you appear to have written a blank cheque for the Globe.”

But Labour councillors hit back.

Cllr Paul Rowling, ward member for Mandale and Victoria, said cuts since 2010 had been “incredibly severe” and accused Cllr Vickers of having “no solutions”.

Cabinet member Cllr Jim Beall said the opposition “couldn’t cherry pick” on the budget.

He added: “You need to support the whole budget otherwise you are the disgrace and you are the cop out – you’re either behind this or against this.”

But Cllr Andrew Stephenson, independent member for the western wards, believed the council was “free spending”.

He added: “We had this Ingleby Barwick Leisure Centre which set off at £10m – it’s now going on to £13.2m. We lost £2.5m on the post office and the Glam club – we weren’t allowed to have private businesses in there because it would get ruined and we’re knocking it down.”

Cllr Stephenson said spending on the Globe had gone “totally out of all control” given its £20m cost.

He added: “And the reshaping of the town centres for £30m – what’s that about? Everybody else is trying to get out of town centres – this is not an asset it’s a liability.

“We’re just spending money buying up liabilities and paying for what big businesses should be investing in – but no, it has to be the Stockton taxpayer that picks up all of this.”

Two budget amendments were put forward by the Conservatives before the main vote.

One was to take £240,000 from Stockton International Riverside Festival and put it into the council’s youth service.

The other was to put £200,000 towards more council community enforcement officers by cutting management costs. Both failed.

Council leader Cllr Bob Cook said: “The 17.5 per cent increase he talks about – 60 per cent of that is the government social care levy we had to impose in the last two or three years.

“It’s good financial management that we’ve only had to raise it 17.5 per cent over the last ten years.”