YORK’S ruling councillors have been accused of wearing a “low tax, low spending” reputation as a “badge of honour” when the city faces major problems.

On Thursday night the city’s budget was set for the year ahead - including a 3.49 per cent council tax increase.

Despite a tumultuous meeting which left the authority without a council leader, the ruling Liberal Democrat and Conservative administration got its financial plans for the year ahead approved in the face of calls for a higher raise from Labour and Green councillors.

Labour’s Cllr Jonny Crawshaw challenged ruling councillors to “admit how little we are spending on the people in this city who need our support”. He said figures show one in three children in some parts of the city are living in poverty, and York is now the ninth most unequal city in the country.

His Labour colleague Stuart Barnes called on York’s Conservatives to follow the example of North Yorkshire Tory councillors - who have put council tax up by five per cent in order to support vulnerable people, calling it their duty “in a civilised society”.

Labour’s budget plans would have increased council tax by 4.5 per cent, while the Green party wanted to see a higher council tax increase of nearly six per cent to pour money into things like parks and access to the arts for all.

Before both their plans were voted down, they also faced harsh criticism from independent councillor Mark Warters - who said tax should not be going up more than the city’s average wages - which are only increasing by 2.5 per cent.

After the resignation of two Conservative councillors and chaos over the election of a new leader, only Cllr Ian Gillies spoke up in support of the budget from the Conservative benches.

“To listen to some of the people on the Labour benches you would think York is on its knees. It’s not. It’s time you stopped knocking it,” he said.

“We have achieved an awful lot.”

Lib Dem Ann Reid also defended the budget - saying the one-off capital spending they had agreed would help deliver key projects like new homes for older people, the community stadium, and York Central - and will kick start new schemes like electric buses and energy efficiency.