COUNCIL tax will be frozen for the sixth year in a row by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, but opposition councillors have accused the Conservative administration of being out of touch with residents.

A full council meeting agreed a budget which will see the cost of the borough council’s services stay at 29p per day for an average household.

The council has allocated an additional £960,000 over the next year to support the delivery of priorities in the council plan.

This includes earmarking money to keep community safety patrollers on the streets, taking forward the drive to make the Top of The Town a more vibrant place, and continuing specialist welfare support for those struggling financially.

It also includes a £4.5million earmarked fund to invest in new ways of tackling homelessness in the borough – building on more than £600,000 already invested in helping Sentinel Housing Association to buy 17 homes.

However, the borough’s Labour group has accused the Tory-led administration of being “out of touch” with residents. An amendment tabled by the deputy leader of the group, Councillor Paul Harvey, called on councillors to set aside £25million to create an “Invest to Home” affordable housing reserve.

In addition, they proposed a £750,000 “Invest to Work” scheme to aid job creation and apprenticeship programmes and a £500,000 fund to help people affected by Hampshire County Council’s supporting people programme.

The leader of the Labour group, Cllr Laura James, told the meeting last Thursday: “Cuts have been and are devastating for people in Basingstoke.

“Many older people in supported housing in the borough have seen their alarm systems cut unless they can afford to pay for it themselves.

“There is a growing neglect of people in the most need. I will not be supporting this budget.”

Cllr Gavin James, the leader of the borough’s Liberal Democrats group, told councillors that the borough council are no longer in a partnership with the county council but in a “lopsided relationship”.

He added: “If you add up the cost of planning appeals, the overspend on The Malls and the missed opportunity in green energy investments, they (the Conservatives) are far from being safe with our money and I am not sure we can afford for them to carry on.”

Independent Cllr Martin Biermann called for more green initiatives, telling the meeting: “I would also like to have seen some bigger ideas in our budget.

“We have played around the edges and done very little. With proper commitment to this as an idea, we should have been very much further forward and it has been a great disappointment and not a prudent way to deal with our resources.”

However, the leader of the borough council, Cllr Clive Sanders, said the administration had a long-term economic plan to make Basingstoke and Deane “an even better place to be”.

He added: “Our borough has tremendous potential, a potential that is now being recognised at all levels of Government.

“This budget provides the resources to enable businesses to continue to flourish.”

Council tax bills in Basingstoke and Deane are made up of contributions to the borough council, Hampshire County Council, Hamp-shire Constabulary, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service and parish councils.