COUNCILLORS voted to pass a council budget for the year ahead which will see council tax and parking permits increase.

In a meeting of Brighton and Hove City Council yesterday at the Brighton Centre, representatives voted in favour of the council's spending plans for the year ahead.

Council tax will rise by 3.99 per cent, including an additional two percent increase to cover the cost of adult social care.

While parking permits are set to rise by as much as £100 for those with multiple vehicles after a Labour amendment passed.

Money raised from the parking permits hike will go towards funding more street cleaners, to support investment bids for improving Stanmer Park Road.

However, parking charges at city parks will be frozen and free swimming will be rolled out for children. Library service charges for children will also be frozen, with fines for under-18s abolished in favour of an "incentive model".

The Youth Arts programme, ward budgets for councillors and community libraries, initially outlined for budget cuts, will now all be fully funded after joint amendments by the Greens and Labour.

Street lighting or CCTV will be granted £8,000 of capital investment to help improve safety, especially for women and young people, with a study to be conducted by Sussex Police to identify "hotspots" and to make recommendations for future investment.

To reduce plastic pollution in the city, £35,000 will be invested into so-called 'fish bins' - large, sculpted depositories for recycling plastic which will be installed along the seafront. 

However, Conservative proposals to allocate £200,000 of capital investment towards a monarchist statue to commemorate the Platinum Jubilee failed, as did Tory calls for £30,000 to support City in Bloom, a £70,000 package to help women's safety in the night-time economy, proposals to invest more money in restoring Madeira Terraces and plans to freeze beach hut license fees.

This year's budget will invest more than half a million pounds into restoring Madeira Terraces, renewing seafront heritage lighting, refurbishing the Victoria Fountain and expanding the city's graffiti pilot.

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