Council tax in East Lothian will rise by three per cent next year after councillors agreed a budget, which sees more than £7 million of cash reserves used to plug a gap in funds.
The Labour administration budget was unanimously approved with additional funding to tackle antisocial behaviour in communities, a reduction on coastal car parking fees for regular users and a freeze on council house rent.
Council leader Norman Hampshire said without drawing on reserves built up over the years by the administration council tax would have had to rise much higher to allow them to continue providing services.
He said: "Without the use of our £7.1 million council reserves we would have required a 13 per cent council tax increase just to keep our current services going."
Councillor Hampshire said the council had seen a rise of £12 million in the cost of delivering core services while Scottish Government funding to the council had been cut by £734,000.
He added that the increase in council tax and addition of 1200 new homes in the county would bring in an additional £4.2 million leaving a gap of £8 million to be found.
However he said the administration had decided to take cash from its reserves rather than make cuts to give the new leadership team, which comes in after May's local authority election, time to find ways to save.
He said: "To provide our staff the time to implement these changes and manage the increase in demand we are going to use £7.1 million of our available council reserves.
"They are available to us because this administration has protected them for difficult budget situations.
"This will allow the new council administration a year to find the savings and reductions required in the costs of delivering our council services."
Mr Hampshire announced plans to give community development services an additional £182,000 over two years to support outreach work with community groups to tackle antisocial behaviour.
He also said £250,000 would be used to provide new bike pump tracks across the county to support young people by providing facilities for them at night and weekends.
The move was welcomed by opposition leader Councillor Lachlan Bruce whose Preston, Seton Gosford ward has been affected by antisocial behaviour over the last year.
He said: " I know that in my ward antisocial behaviour monies will be greatly received.
"One area I want to address is the CCTV money that has been on our capital budget for three years now at least I think and hasn’t been spent as of yet.
"Given the antisocial behaviour issue we know exists I would ask officers to take away a plea from me to spend this money as soon as possible so that our CCTV system is fully operational again."
Councillor Bruce also backed the increase in council tax.
He said: "Council tax going up three per cent this year won’t be easy for lots of people to absorb in future years to come.
"Very few people in East Lothian luckily will pay more this year than they did last year on the council tax thanks to the £150 payments from central government which is to be welcomed."
Tributes were paid to former council leader Councillor Willie Innes who passed away in office last year.
Labour councillor Shamin Akhtar said his influence on the budget was clear to see.
And SNP group leader Councillor Stuart Currie said the annual "bout" with Councillor Innes during budget debates was "something to behold".
He added: "That he is not here is a tragedy in itself."
Councillor Currie said the SNP group supported the three per cent council tax rise as the highest they could back.
He said: "Let’s be clear the cost-of-living crisis is being brought about by soaring energy costs - but also by deliberate policy choices by the UK government to massively hike national insurance contributions that will have a huge impact on many people within our county.
"It would be in no one’s interest for this council to not increase council tax by an amount that ensures that the vital services we provide could not continue or had to be curtailed.
"The challenges that we face in the months ahead means that the vital work this council does will be needed more than ever before."
And he supported a reduction on the season pass cost for coastal car parking of £10 annually saying "we think this will be welcomed by many residents at this time."
