EDINBURGH council tax will remain unchanged for the next year while city centre parking charges will rise by 20 per cent after a budget was passed by councillors.

Council leader Cammy Day accepted the Scottish Government's settlement "with considerable reluctance" as he said the £16.1m provided did not fully fund a freeze. 

Rates are forecast to rise by 7.8% next year, as the authority faces a £143m deficit by 2028/29.

An annual budget was agreed by Labour, LibDems and Conservatives - which one SNP councillor said came following a "grubby deal" - at the City Chambers on Thursday, February 22.

The deepest cuts proposed to services - including more than £8m to schools and £3.2m to leisure facilities - were avoided this year through "one-off" funding, reduced pension contributions and dipping into cash reserves.

After failing to get a budget through last February, Day said he was pleased to see his group's motion agreed with "support from the majority of the chamber".

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He said "some compromises" were needed to get it over the line, adding: "This year we’ve been progressive in our approach to working with parties that were prepared to come and meet with us."

Adam Nols-McVey, leader of the opposition SNP group, said the budget process had been a "huge missed opportunity".

He said: "The SNP put forward really bold and radical plans sorting childcare for families on a Friday afternoon, building an ecosystem of childcare and after school care which would have been stronger across every primary school in Edinburgh."

He also took aim at the three parties for "voting for a £500,000 party in the city instead of fully funding youth work" - criticising money allocated to celebrate Edinburgh's 900th anniversary this year.

However Cllr Day defended the decision to fund the celebration, saying it was the "right thing to do as a historic city with an international presence".

Labour's budget motion included a £12.5m boost for roads, pavements and lighting each year for the next three years, as well as £2.25m additional over the same period for flood prevention, and £750k to build new public toilets in Leith Links, the Meadows and Inverleith Park.

And £50k has been set aside to fund a 'Night Czar' to represent the interests of the capital's night-time economy.

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The Lib Dem amendment had an additional £2m for schools - on top of the funding to delay mooted cutbacks - and £500k over two years to plant more trees in a bid to meet the council's goal to plant a million by 2030.

Also as a result of the Lib Dem's plans being incorporated into the budget, in 2024/25 there will be £300k for improvements to subsidised bus services across the city; £200k to fund a new 'heat network officer'; £100k for temporary public toilets in parks; £500k to help struggling families "maximise their income through providing advice", and £117k to boost discretionary housing payments; £75k toward safety improvements for active travel on off road paths, and £50k to "provide enforcement and signage to address amplified busking".

In addition the group proposed saving nearly £4m in the next two years through reviewing off-contract spending and conducting 'best value' reviews of the counicl's corporate services, such as IT and digital, while raising £15k by increasing garage rental fees five per cent and £22k by hiking road occupation charges by 15 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Conservative amendment accepted contained £892k to fund 'Scrub our Streets' - a new scheme which will allow residents to directly request street cleansing in their neighbourhood.

The Tories were also successful in securing £240k to restore bus services 69 and 20 for Willowbrae/Lady Nairne and Dumbiedykes, and further best value reviews in homelessness services in a bid to save £2.5m in the next to years.

Addressing councillors in the chamber, Labour Finance convener Mandy Watt said the Scottish Government “took away one of the main levers we have when we’re trying to set priorities in a budget" by imposing a council tax freeze without fully funding it.

“That said, we don’t consider its a particularly good look from our residents point of view to be saying we need more money from the Scottish Government and then effectively handing back about £17m to them and asking residents to make up the difference," she said.

Protests were held outside the City Chambers in Edinburgh ahead of the budget meeting

The SNP's Lesley Macinnes said people in the city had been hit “again and again by the consequences of poor management of the economy by the UK Government”.

She said: “These issues have had a devastating negative impact on council finances too. Brexit, for example, has added cost to virtually every financial action we take.”

Her group's budget would “solve the Friday afternoon stresses for parents by providing universal free after school clubs through significant investment of over £5m” and allocating £465k to make up for a “scandalous shortfall” in funding of youth work organisations, Cllr Macinnes said.

Lib Dem group leader Kevin Lang said: “When the Liberal Democrats sat down to agree our priorities one of our very first decisions was to simply say it isn’t good enough to just stop the cuts, it isn’t good enough to just promise to not continue the salami slicing we have seen of devolved school budgets.

“That’s why both the Liberal Democrat budget and this amendment have unapologetically as their headline not just stopping the cuts but investing more money in schools."

Phil Doggart, Conservatives, said: “Last year we were bailed out by an accounting technicality. This year we’ve been bailed out by reductions in our pension contributions - it’s not a raid on the pension fund as some seem to believe - it’s a reduction in pension contributions.

“This organisation badly needs change. It needs change in its structure, it needs change i how services are delivered and it needs change in how it uses technology.”

Greens co-leader Alys Mumford said the budget passed by the council "doesn’t deliver everything people in Edinburgh need".

She said: "The failure to increase council tax, and lack of bold vision for investment in the future represent a missed opportunity for the city.

"But there are some positives - we’re pleased to see that the vast majority of parties this year recognised the need for significant investment in tackling the climate and nature emergencies. We’re really pleased to see widespread support for the night-time coordinator and acknowledgement parking fines need to be significantly increased in order to discourage unnecessary car use."

Meanwhile, the council's only independent councillor Ross McKenzie, drew members' attention to a huge funding gap in the city's social care services, which would need to be closed later this year.