A £23 million package of cuts and savings has been voted through at a stormy meeting of Dundee councillors.
Members voted 14 to two for the measures, which include the loss of 200 jobs, hikes in car parking and funeral charges and a host of other savings and cutbacks, with 11 members abstaining from the vote altogether.
Dundee City Council’s revenue budget for 2016/17 has been cut by 5.5%, leaving it with a prospective £23 million black hole in its finances.
Finance convener Willie Sawers said the council had approached the budget with three main aims: to minimise the impact on frontline services, to avoid compulsory redundancies and to maintain the council tax freeze.
All SNP councillors present voted for the proposed budget while Liberal Democrat councillor Fraser Macpherson and Conservative Derek Scott voted for an amendment tabled by Mr Macpherson.
All 10 Labour councillors and independent councillor Ian Borthwick abstained.
Labour had refused to submit alternative budget proposals and there was fury among Labour members when Mr Sawers ended the meeting rather than accepting an amendment from group leader Kevin Keenan that sought to defer accepting the budget until further representation had been made to the Scottish Government.
See below for updates from the debate as it happened, with full coverage and analysis in Friday’s Dundee edition of The Courier.