LAST minute deals over free buses, the future of Castlegate and Yearsley Pool have seen City of York councillors agree a budget for the year ahead.

The deal - dubbed "green on the outside, red on the inside" by Conservative opponent Cllr Paul Healey - will see money put back into the budgets for apprenticeships, and a £50,000 cut to libraries reversed.

It will also see £200,000 spent keeping young people's advice services in dedicated premises at Castlegate while other options are investigated; and a five year commitment to Yearsley Pool.

And a free city centre bus service is to be trialled for six months, at a cost of £150,000 - all in a Green party amendment to the budget plans which was voted through before the final plan was approved.

The votes of Conservative party defector Cllr Joe Watt, two Green Party councillors Andy D'Agorne, and former Labour councillor Ken King then helped the Labour council push through its financial plans for the year ahead.

Introducing the original budget, council leader Dafydd Williams laid the blame for service cuts firmly at the feet of the coalition Government, saying northern councils like York's had seen per head spending fall while southern council areas had seen increases in their funds.

Conservative group leader Cllr Chris Steward said borrowing plans would leave to council paying off Labour debts for "years and years", and spoke of the Lendal Bridge trial and the abandoned elderly people's home plans which lost the council thousands.

Early in the meeting, union official Heather Mackenzie spoke against opposition plans to slash union funding from the council.

She said the money spent on representation for council staff saved costly and difficult legal disputes in the long run - but Liberal Democrat Nigel Ayre defended their plans to cut the union's funding saying it was not right to spend money on dedicated premises for union staff.

Cllr Joe Watt used the meeting to heap criticism on his former party colleagues, and blame opposition parties for stymying the Lendal Bridge trial depriving the city of nearly £1 million in fines money.

He added: "If you don't like the budget details then win the election, form your cabinet and have an emergency budget."

Council tax will be frozen in York in the coming year after the budget agreement, with the council accepting a Government grant to help fund this - a move welcomed by other parties which said the grant should have been taken earlier.

The budget was passed at the end of a three and a half hour meeting in the Guildhall this evening.