Residents in Southend will be hit with a council tax hike after the council passed its budget for 2015/16.

It means that residents in a Band D property will be forking out £23.40 extra a year, while other controversial proposals to hike town centre car parking charges and to cull 55 litter bins were voted through by the Labour, Lib Dem, and Independent administration.

Tory proposals to put the brakes on all three were voted down.

But the council also approved £155million in capital spend - mostly funded by the Government - over the next four years.

That includes £32million for the council's housing accounts, despite rents in 2015/16 going up by £3.71 on average.

A total of £267,000 will be taken from the council's reserves to keep Priory House care home open for the forseeable future while the authority looks into the feasibility of building a new location for the service.

The budget approval follows news that the main grant the council receives from central Government will decrease by £11.1m (28%) in 2015/16. 

Independent Ron Woodley, leader of the council, said:  “We have had to make some incredibly difficult decisions that deliver significant savings just so we can balance our books. It is inevitable that as central Government funding reduces every year, the decisions get tougher and tougher.

"To put this in context we need to save over £33m over the next three years, which is approximately £42,000 per working day or £210,000 per working week for the next three years.

“However, I am also very clear that we must remain a forward thinking and ambitious authority and that is why we will continue to seek external funding to deliver capital projects that improve the Borough and also encourage private investment into the town.

“We really have little choice but to raise council tax rise by 1.95%, or 42p a week for a Band D household. We have not done this lightly and accept that local people have also been impacted by the austerity measures, so we have done everything possible to avoid this."