THE Conservatives have passed their first budget since taking control of Bolton Council last year.

Council tax will go up by 3.05 per cent in April after the local authority voted to raise its part of the bill by two per cent.

This extra money for the council will be ring-fenced for adult social care while the rest of the rise will be used by the Mayor of Greater Manchester for police, the fire service and buses.

Council leader David Greenhalgh said his party was "proud" to be proposing no rise in the council tax general levy.

But he recognised the pressures on the local authority which still needs to find millions of pounds in savings by 2021.

He said: "The party opposite, and now us on this side, have to make difficult decisions. Nobody enters politics to make cuts to services, but those decisions have to be made and with control comes responsibility."

Of the £23.5m worth of cuts over a two-year period, a quarter of a million pounds of savings has been earmarked in the community meals budget.

Labour urged the Conservatives not to scrap the council's meals on wheels service and instead axe a new assistant director job at the town hall.

The opposition group also wanted to use £50,000 from the reserves in the public health budget to keep the service going in the next financial year.

Former council leader Linda Thomas said that making way for a private company to provide meals to the elderly would be "counter-productive".

She said: “Our preventative agenda has been seriously undermined by the cuts. Community meals are a vital component of this, keeping people independently at home for longer. Providing just frozen meals at a much higher cost without the familiar interaction the elderly people expect and are used to is another way of undermining this agenda."

But the Labour group was accused of "political point scoring" by the Tories who said the savings had been identified before they took over the town hall.

Conservative councillor Andy Morgan, the executive cabinet member for adult social care, promised there would be "no significant changes" for people who use the meals on wheels service under his party's proposals.

He said: “No current service user will be left without a daily provision of a hot meal if that’s what they chose to purchase themselves. They will have other options like frozen meals but there are providers who provide a daily hot meal."

UKIP leader Sean Hornby put forward an amendment to the budget proposals calling on the council to look at all options and funding from outside sources to help support bowling greens.

This comes as a review into the future management arrangements for bowling greens takes place and an increase in the annual £25 park permit was scaled back to £45 this year and £65 in 2021.

Lib Dem leader Roger Hayes criticised the Mayor of Greater Manchester for increasing part of his council tax precept by 45.5 per cent.

He said: “When I see that the Mayor of Greater Manchester is increasing his Burnham tax part of the fund, not the police, not the fire, but the money he uses for good projects, ‘to get Burnham re-elected fund’ we’ll call it, that’s gone up by 45.5 per cent.

"At the same time the Mayor of Merseyside has actually frozen his council tax. Now, who would think that a Scouser is more financially prudent?"

Cllr Hayes, whose amendment to the budget was lost, later apologised for his comments about Liverpudlians.

Labour's unsuccessful amendment called for an additional £2,500 for each area forum, targeted funding for the most deprived neighbourhoods to continue and to keep free parking at weekends in Bolton town centre's three NCP multi-storey car parks.

There was also criticism from Labour councillor Martin McMulkin for failing to allocate any money in this budget towards the commitments the council made when it declared a climate emergency nearly six months ago.

The council's budget for 2020/21 was approved with 34 voting in favour and 22 against.