RESIDENTS will face their biggest council tax rise in a decade after Brighton and Hove City Council agreed a budget of £20 million cuts last night.

Councillors voted 43-9 in favour of the £760 million 2016/17 council budget in a highly charged meeting lasting more than six hours.

The vote was not without its drama as for a third year in a row, councillors voted down the budget at the first attempt before group leaders headed into a room for further negotiations.

The meeting was also delayed for around 15 minutes before council leader Warren Morgan’s opening speech when more than a dozen protesters burst into a version of protest song Solidarity Forever.

The protesters were threatened with removal and potential police action before the meeting resumed.

The budget was finally agreed at just before 10.45pm and confirms the closure of five children’s centres as well as Tower House Day Centre while two libraries in Westdene and Hollingbury will be merged into a school and children’s centre.

Further unpopular cuts to meals on wheels, public toilets, sexual health services and youth services have also been agreed.

Around 260 jobs will go from the council over the next 12 months with a further 280 to be cut by 2020 when a further £48 million of cuts are expected to be made.

Green group leader Phelim MacCafferty described it as “one of the worst budgets in our entire history”.

Residents will see their bills rise by 3.99 per cent from April – the biggest rise allowed by central government without a referendum with two per cent of that additional rise ringfenced for adult social care services.

For band D homeowners it will mean the Brighton and Hove City Council element of their council tax bill will rise by £53.35 to £1,392.03.

Union members, campaigners and councillors all gathered outside the Sussex County Cricket ground ahead of the meeting.

Council leader Warren Morgan said the authority would no longer be able to do what it did in 2010 in 2019.

He said: “No private business can absorb £25 million in cuts and increased costs year on year, as we are in this council.

“It is not a sustainable or viable situation.”

Councillor Geoffrey Theobald, leader of the Conservative Group, said:

"Despite the Labour Administration having originally voted against all of our amendments, we are delighted that they have shown common sense by agreeing virtually all of our amendments.

"This means that we have succeeded with saving funding mental health support, vital respite care for parents of disabled children, housing support to protect against homelessness, public toilets, verge cutting and noise patrol services.

"The Conservatives also succeeded in retaining funds for the Community Grants Programme, a vital resource for those who need it most".