Councillors have argued about how to spend our cash.

During hours of debate at Huddersfield town hall last night, rival politicians spoke up about the challenges facing Kirklees Council' s budget.

Clr Graham Turner said it was not the budget Labour wanted to move but were being forced into it by “continuing attacks” on northern councils by the Chancellor.

“The public will see huge changes in what we deliver and how we deliver it,” he said.

“We believe in public services and we will do all we can to protect them.”

But he said it would be tough after £173m in cuts thanks to “the failures of George Osborne and his Eton chums”.

Clr Turner said Kirklees' spending per head had dropped by £400 per person since austerity began ten years ago.

“These cuts are not our doing,” he said.

“The blame for these clearly lies with the current government.”

Watch a video about the challenges Kirklees Council is facing below

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Holme Valley North Independent, Charles Greaves, said: “There’s no easy cuts, every reduction is a job lost or a service reduced.”

But Conservative Deputy Leader, Clr David Hall, said “proper devolution” to the Kirklees wards would save a lot of money. The Tories proposed slashing £15m from regeneration funds for Huddersfield and Dewsbury and spending it across the borough.

Tory group leader, Clr Robert Light, said the council was “hoarding” its reserves. But Green party leader Clr Andrew Cooper said the Tory’s ideas showed a “dangerous reliance” on the council’s diminishing reserves.

Clr. Robert Light
Clr. Robert Light

But council finance chiefs have claimed reserves could run dry within two years.

Clr Cooper said: “The Tories like to pretend we’re not in the dire position we’re in because of their government’s cuts.

“They say one thing and do another. Their budget is an attempt to hoodwink the public.

“They pretend it’s possible for the government to cut our budgets and then they will sprinkle magic dust on our budget and everything will be ok.

“It insults the intelligence of local people.”

Clr Peter McBride (Labour) described the Conservative proposals as “parochialism at its worst”.

“They want to take money from Huddersfield and fritter it on parochial prejudices,” he said.

Read more: Kirklees Council Budget 2016 - Labour's plans voted through

Labour's member for Dewsbury East, Clr Cathy Scott, said: "I can't understand why the Conservatives don't want to see Dewsbury flourish."

Clr Scott said the Tory budget was "definitely £5m short" and described it as "senseless" and "stupid".

Kirkburton Tory, Clr Bill Armer, said he supported the devolution plan.

"Funding should be spread more fairly around the borough," he said.

Tory leader, Clr Light, added: "Kirklees is not just about Huddersfield and Dewsbury."

Clr Light described the Labour budget as "shambolic" with "little vision or direction".

Clr Light also expressed concern that council tax would have to rise year on year.

But Kirklees leader, Clr David Sheard, said the Tory plan was a "deck chair budget".

Clr David Sheard.

He said: "It's half based on myth and the other half is not based on reality."

Referring to the government cuts, Lib Dem leader, Clr Nicola Turner, said Kirklees had been "ravaged by wolves".

She said councillors could not sit in their "ivory chamber" and had to accept cuts to council as they handed down cuts to the people of the borough.

See how the meeting went down with a look back at our live blog

Clr Kath Pinnock said: "This is a central government budget that we are managing."

We're propping it up with £15m of reserves, we're already using reserves for next year before the next round of cuts."

The budget needs to be fair. We're all going to get cuts, let's just hope it's fairly spread."

Veteran of 26 budgets, Clr Molly Walton, said she felt sorry for her colleagues who had some "horrible decisions" to make.

Clr Walton who is retiring in May, said a strategic overview was needed and lamented the rival groups for not working together enough.