COUNCIL tax will be frozen in East Lothian for the coming year after the council Labour administration’s budget was backed by SNP councillors.

The administration’s budget proposals for the year ahead included freezing council tax, establishing a £600,000 business recovery fund and a £3million investment towards the new East Linton railway station.

It will also see £1.5million invested in new waste collection vehicles which will allow the local authority to introduce weekly kerbside recycling collections.

It comes a week after the council agreed to freeze rent increases for its tenants for a year.

READ MORE: Councillors agree rent freeze

The council tax for Band D remains at £1,302.62 for the year.

During a virtual meeting of the council today (Tuesday), all three parties presented their own amendments to the proposed budget.

The Conservative Group’s amendments would have invested £600,000 in schools instead of businesses, while the SNP amendments backed the business funding but called for music tuition fees to be scrapped.

Opposition leader Councillor Lachlan Bruce (Con) said that councillors faced “hard choices” as he accused the Scottish Government of holding on to money which should have been given to local authorities to support Covid recovery.

He told the meeting: “The SNP is still determined to strangle East Lothian Council and other local authorities across Scotland.

“That has placed us into the school of hard choices. The Conservatives believe our young people’s education must be protected at all costs.”

Proposing £600,000 of funds the administration earmarked for businesses should instead be distributed to schools, Mr Bruce said that the headteachers would be able to decide where it would best be spent to support children and young people.

Seconding the Conservative amendment, Councillor Katie Mackie (Con) added: “While lockdown has been necessary to protect lives and the NHS, I think it is OK to acknowledge that it comes at a price.

“I recently read an article that said not since Victorian times have children spent so little time in school.

“The creation of an education recovery fund is needed. Our budget is in favour of young people.”

Councillor Stuart Currie, SNP Group leader, said that 2020 would undoubtedly be a year no one would forget.

His group’s budget amendments backed the business recovery funding and called for music tuition fees to be dropped.

However, Councillor Norman Hampshire (Lab), depute council leader, said that the administration could not consider cutting any investment being generated for the council in the current climate.

Councillor Willie Innes (Lab), council leader, warned against “politcising” the budget.

He pointed out that the differences between the administration’s proposals and opposition groups were minimal, with the SNP Group agreeing with “99.64 per cent” of their proposals and Conservatives “99.7 per cent”.

He said that the only difference to the budget negotiations this year was the looming Scottish Parliament election in May.

He warned fellow councillors: “The virus is still with us, people are still dying. It is not going to go away for the duration of an election campaign.”

Mr Hampshire, who chaired the meeting, urged unity from councillors to approve the administration budget and received the backing of SNP councillors in the vote, with Conservative councillors voting against it.

Neither opposition group amendments were approved as they were both voted down.