COUNCIL tax will rise by 3% in April.

Kirklees councillors set the rate for 2008/09 at the annual budget meeting last night.

Including fire and police payments, Band A householders will pay £885.21 a year - an increase of 53p a week.

People in Band H properties will pay £2,655.62 annually - a rise of £1.59 a week.

Residents in Kirkburton, Holme Valley North, Meltham, Denby Dale and Mirfield will have slightly higher bills to fund their parish councils.

Council leader Clr Robert Light said: “For the second year running the council tax increase will be pegged at below the national price rise trends while maintaining and improving services.”

The council will have a budget of almost £300m to spend on everything from sports centres to street cleaning.

Compromise was reached between the ruling Conservatives and the Lib Dems and Greens after a stormy meeting.

Labour - which is the largest party on the council - had no input into the final budget.

Among Conservative plans to get the go-ahead was £2m extra to care for vulnerable children, £6m more for road repairs and £12m to regenerate Dewsbury.

The Tories - who have 20 of the 69 councillors on Kirklees - agreed to £1.4m worth of Lib Dem and Green proposals in order to get the budget passed.

The Lib Dems secured among other things, £200,000 to help former soldiers suffering from combat stress and £25,000 for Almondbury Library and Children’s Centre.

Among the Green proposals agreed was an extra £40,000 for road safety and £10,000 to subsidise parking for environmentally-friendly cars.

For the Conservatives, Clr Light said: “The council’s always been at its best when it comes together. There’s some really good proposals from the other groups and it’s important we recognise that.”

Lib Dem leader Clr Kath Pinnock said: “It’s our responsibility to play a constructive role in the decisions that are made about budgets.”

She added that of her party’s 25 spending proposals, 23 were in the final budget. Clr Pinnock said: “We’ve done our best to get some of our priorities accepted by other groups.”

For the Greens, Clr Graham Simpson said: “This covers a lot of important developments for Kirklees and we’re happy to support it.”

But the 22-strong Labour group was unhappy with the deal between the other three groups.

Leader Clr Mehboob Khan said: “We have been frozen out. I am bitterly disappointed at the attitude of the Tories and Lib Dems in particular.”

In angry exchanges, the Conservatives and Lib Dems accused Labour of only entering into budget negotiations last Friday.

Clr Khan stressed the need to retain weekly grey bin collections in some urban parts of Kirklees and promised to campaign on the issue in May’s council elections.