COUNCIL tax will rise in East Lothian by 4.79 per cent in the coming year – the maximum allowed by Holyrood.

East Lothian Council's minority Labour administration passed their budget today (Tuesday), with the backing of Conservative Opposition councillors.

The increase in council tax will bring an estimated additional £1.29m in local authority cash next year.

However, despite that and an extra £1.7m from the Scottish Government, the council’s finance chief Jim Lamond said there was still a reduction in core funding of just under £2.5million for the coming year.

Among areas facing cuts in the 2019/20 budget are nearly £1.4m in what is described as staffing performance and senior management reviews, which will look at vacancy management and rationalisation of services.

However, other proposed savings such as scrapping disabled taxi card services and charging for garden waste were shelved as the council tax increase was introduced.