A maximum council tax increase has been agreed by Cambridgeshire County Council, with a promise made to spend more money on improving the county’s roads.

The leader of the county council, Councillor Lucy Nethsingha (Liberal Democrat), said the investments proposed for the coming year will “make a difference for families in Cambridgeshire”.

At a full council meeting on February 13, the authority agreed a 4.99 per cent increase of its share of the council tax bill, which it said will raise £17.5million.

Two-per cent of the increase is dedicated towards funding adult social care services.

The council tax increase will see people living in a Band D household pay £76.95 more a year to the authority.

The county council said it is proposing to spend £57million on sustaining critical adults and children’s social care, and that it will invest £23million into improving the county’s roads and pavements.

The authority also said it will spend £3million on continuing the school holiday food vouchers for families on low incomes.

The scheme had previously been funded by the central government household support funding, but the county council said they expected this to be cut.

While the vouchers will continue the amount families receive is due to be reduced from £180 to £135, however, Councillor Bryony Goodliffe (Labour), chair of the children and young people committee, said without the county council investment families would receive nothing.

The authority said it was also proposing to spend £2.2million on anti-poverty initiatives.

Cllr Nethsingha said: “This has been the most challenging budget round I have faced as leader of this council.

“Across the country councils have had to issue Section 114 notices, those are notices warning that the council may not be able to set a balanced budget, at an unprecedented scale.

“There has been a debate between representatives of local and national government about the cause of the crisis in individual councils, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that after 10 years of relentless cuts local government has reached the point where there is no more surplus in the system.

“All councils are only a year or two away from not being able to set a balanced budget and, as with households that are on the edge, it would only take a small thing to send any council finances over the precipice of rising debt charges and the inability to provide core statutory services.

“For councils the highest risks right now are in the shockingly high costs of children’s social care placements with costs for urgent places at record levels.

“It only takes one of two high cost young people to come into the system beyond expectations to set our budget significantly off track.”

Cllr Nethsingha said the authority was also seeing cost increases in other areas, including more children requiring specialist support through education health and care plans.

She said the area also had an ageing population who needed more support and care, and said the road network in Cambridgeshire was in a “dire state after a decade of managed decline”.

Cllr Nethsingha said the authority was also planning to “pick up the costs” of funding the school holiday food vouchers scheme after she said it had been “made clear” the government household support fund would be cut.

Councillor Elisa Meschini (Labour), deputy leader of the county council, said it was “difficult” to propose a 4.99 per cent council tax increase.

However, she said without the £17.5m it would raise the county council would not be able to continue to provide services for people most in need.

The Conservative opposition group at the county council opposed the joint administration’s proposed budget.

Councillor Steve Count (Conservative) accused the joint administration of making a number of “u-turns” and taking up suggestions he said had been made in the Conservative budget proposals last year.

He also accused the joint administration of “blaming everything else possible” for the problems being faced.

The Conservative opposition proposed an alternative budget which included asking for more money to be spent on highway maintenance.

Cllr Count said the amount proposed by the joint administration was not enough, particularly to deal with the damage to peat roads, and argued not doing more was “putting residents in danger”.

He also said government messaging said there would be a “tapering off” of the household support fund, and proposed to therefore reduce the amount of money being pledged towards continuing school holiday food vouchers.

The amendment also proposed to lower the assumption for staff pay increases.

Cllr Count said there was money in various council reserves that had no planned uses in the coming years and said this could be used in the budget process.

He added that the Conservative group was proposing a full council tax increase in its alternative budget, but said this was not because they supported it, but because he argued it would be “futile” to propose a lower increase to the joint administration.

Cllr Meschini said the amendment was “laughable” arguing that using up council reserves exposed the authority to more risk in the future.

Councillor Tom Sanderson (Independent) said approving the Conservative amendment would mean fewer school meal vouchers could be given out to families, as he said there had been no proposal from the government to “taper” off the household support fund.

Cllr Sanderson added that he was also “proud” the joint administration paid the real living wage instead of the national living wage.

Councillor Alex Bulat (Labour) said that it was “simply not true” that the authority did not have plans for the money in reserves highlighted by Cllr Count.

She also said it was right to mention the central government’s impact on the budget, as she said it was central government that set the county council’s funding allocation, which she said impacted on the decisions the authority could make locally.

Councillor Alex Beckett (Liberal Democrat), chair of the highways and transport committee, said while the proposed investment in highways would not be enough to “reverse decades of managed decline” he said it would enable “active improvement”.

Councillor David Connor (Conservative) said the joint administration had three years in charge and said the “roads were worse than ever”.

Councillor Jonas King (Independent) said people were “tired of funding this council’s mistakes” and said if they agreed to the council tax increase people needed “to see some results”.

The budget and council tax increase was ultimately approved after being supported by a majority of councillors.