MEASURES which will cut more than £30m from Cumbria County Council's budget and increase tax by four per cent have been rubber-stamped.

Councillors pushed through a £34.6m package of savings - the majority of which will come from efficiencies identified in the council's day-to-day spending.

The cash-strapped Labour/Liberal Democrat-run authority still needs to find £52m in savings by 2021/22.

By then, it will mean that CCC will have had to cut £283m in the 11-year period since 2011/12.

A 3.99 per cent increase to council tax was also approved by members on Thursday for 2018/19, which includes a two per cent precept to be spent on adult social care.

That means a Band D property will have a bill of £1,332.12, an increase of £51.11.

"What is clear is that the council will have to deliver essential services with less money," said Cllr Ian Stewart, deputy leader of the council and portfolio holder for finance.

"All of this means we have had to look quite radically at how we do business. Looking at transforming our services over the next three to four years to deliver on our responsibilities to the people of Cumbria, difficult decisions need to be made. However, customers will remain at the heart of what we do as we also become more enterprising and efficient."

The budget drew criticism from opposing Conservative councillors. Cllr James Airey, leader of the Conservative group, saying their was insufficient information as to where exactly the saving would be coming from.

"This is a budget that significantly lacks any detail whatsoever," he said.

An amendment to boost rural community transport initiatives, put forward by Conservative councillor Hilary Carrick, Penrith North, was also defeated.

Despite the cuts to the revenue budget, Cllr Stewart spoke about a range of capital measures the council would be investing in.

He outlined:

l £52m on highways maintenance

l £3.8m on winter maintenance

l £28m on 'looked after children'

l £88m on residential care

l £74m on support at home

l £15.2 on fire and rescue

"It’s very clear that even though we’ve had significant reductions in the amount of money we’ve had available to spend, we have tried and we will continue to try to maintain the level of spend on services that are valued by the people of Cumbria," he said.

Residents in Eden, however, will see no increase to the district council precept of their council tax bill. Eden District Council agreed its own budget on Thursday, which included no council tax rise or cuts to services.

Leader Cllr Kevin Beaty said: "In Eden, we have not taken the easy route to balance out budget by simply cutting discretionary services such as parks, play areas and public toilets.

"Instead, we are listening to the views of town and parish councils about which services residents value and seeing if these could be delivered better and cheaper locally."