Hyndburn Council has formally agreed to freeze its share of council tax for a fifth year running.

It comes as town hall chiefs ratified plans to slash £1.2 million off their £11.1 million budget, with around two-thirds of savings coming through voluntary staff reductions.

Councillors approved the budget for 2014/15 at last week’s council meeting, including £3 million investment in housing regeneration, a revamp of Accrington Town Hall, £470,000 to help disabled people and investment in leisure services and parks.

Council leader Miles Parkinson told the meeting: “This budget delivers on homes, leisure facilities, protecting frontline services, reducing debt, investing in townships across the borough and keeping reserves at a level without a penny on council tax.

“We are putting the council on a sustainable path for the years ahead.

“By 2016/17 we will have lost nearly 57 per cent of our government funding. Hyndburn has been identified as one of those areas that have been hit the hardest.”

Independent councillors had submitted a range of ideas to generate a further £210,000.

But Labour chiefs said they could not support them as they had not been proposed as amendments or costed by officers.

They included a £10 council tax increase on all but lower income households to finance an extra dog warden and another £1 on council tax bills to protect frontline services.

Other suggestions included cutting planning committee allowances, reducing the number of deputy council leaders, changes to payments of vice-chairs of council committee panels and increased joint working with Rossendale Council.

Coun Nick Collingridge told the meeting that the savings were not fully costed because they ‘did not want to waste officers’ time as we knew they would not be taken up’.

Tory group leader Peter Britcliffe called Labour’s budget ‘boring’ and accused Labour of ‘wallowing in doom and gloom’.

He told the meeting: “You don’t want to add to the recovery.

“You are not interested in the future of Hyndburn, you want to stress all the bad points.

“My budget would be all about investment in the people and the townships.

“There’s little point in putting something forward that would just be rejected.”

Council tax bills are still set to rise by up to £2 per month due to precept rises announced by Lancashire County Council and the Police and Crime Commissioner.