HIGHER council tax bills to help fix roads and fund anti-poverty measures persuaded enough councillors to back Labour's budget plans.

A minority administration, they received backing from the Lib Dems and Conservatives to get their proposals passed last Thursday.

Council leader David Ross said: "We’ve tried to limit increases in rent and council tax as far as possible, but an increase is necessary to avoid damaging service reductions and job losses that would also affect Fife families.

"I know a five per cent increase on band D council tax sounds a lot, but it equates to £1.27 a week on the household bill and, overall, the increase will raise over £9m to help cover the cost of keeping local services running."

The budget gap for 2022-23 was £11.5 million, it's estimated to rise to £33.2m in 2024-25 and £55.6m in 2025-26, with the council's finance chief Eileen Rowand identifying soaring inflation as a "game changer".

Labour added in extra expenditure – £761,000 on meeting the increased costs of subsidised bus contracts, £150,000 for Cafe Inc and £216,000 for the Fife Coast and Countryside Trust (FCCT) – taking next year's shortfall up to £12.6m.

To balance the books council tax will go up by five per cent and bring in just over £9m, with the bill for residents in a band D property rising by £65.96 a year to £1,385.

A three per cent rise would have seen band D bills go up by £39.58.

There's £2m of funding that was originally meant for teachers, and reinstated by the Scottish Government, which is now part of the council's settlement and reduces the gap further.

That leaves a shortfall of just over £1.5m and Labour will use reserves of £8m.

That will close the gap and give them just over £6.4m for 'additional temporary investment': £3.5m for roads, £2m in hardship support and around £950,000 held back for 'cost of living pressures' throughout the year, which may include supplementing the staffing in the contact centre to improve accessibility.

It said the SNP proposals would simply store up problems for future years and represented a cut in investment in areas like roads and hardship support.

Labour said the Scottish Government have repeatedly cut the funding for councils, forcing them to put up the council tax by five per cent to plug the budget gap and give them money to invest in priorities, such as tackling the poor state of Fife's roads, holiday hunger and bus transport.

Starting with the £11.5m budget gap, the SNP proposed a three per cent rise in council tax, which would have brought in £5.4m.

The funding for teachers that became part of Fife's settlement, £2m, would further reduce the gap.

Just like Labour, the SNP also wanted to use £8m of reserves to wipe out the deficit, which would have given them a £3.9m surplus to invest in services.

They wanted to spend: £475,000 on 250 starter packs for the homeless; £600,000 on the Welfare Fund; £800,000 for flood prevention measures; £1.5m to tackle potholes; £300,000 for foodbanks and community larders; £63,000 to write off unrecoverable school meal debt; and £150,000 for increased provision to schools of musical instruments.

The SNP said Westminster was to blame for the sky-high inflation and cost of living crisis, and that the UK Government had shortchanged Holyrood, with a 3.4 per cent uplift in the block grant at a time when inflation was above 10 per cent.

They argued that a council tax rise of three per cent would have balanced the books, ensured no services or jobs were cut and given them money to invest in services.