COUNCIL Tax is going up and more than 500 local authority jobs are at risk, after a fiery budget meeting of Bradford Council.

There were shouts from anti-cuts protesters in the public gallery as councillors met at City Hall tonight to decide how to slash millions of pounds from the authority's budget in 2015/16.

After the meeting, Councillor David Green, leader of the Labour-run Council, said they had made the best of the situation, but added: "It's horrendous for the people that we serve and for the people that work for us."

At the meeting, the authority's ruling Labour group pushed through its plan to raise Council Tax by 1.6 per cent, despite calls from the Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups for a price freeze.

It means the tax bill for a band D property will now stand at £1,351.60, including police and fire service charges.

The decision also finalises a range of cuts, from health services to libraries, totalling more than £34 million.

And the equivalent of 558 full-time jobs in the Council are now at risk of redundancy.

Cllr Green, putting forward the Labour proposals, said the Council's funding had been cut by more than £160 million since 2011.

He said until this changed, it was "inevitable that we are seeing these cuts hit every community, every group and every part of this district".

But he said his group was pleased to be able to offer all employees the Living Wage from the autumn, and it was e also planning to invest in training for school leaders.

He said: "We know that education has got to be a priority for this district and that is why we have committed funds to improving the leadership of our schools."

Cllr Green added that in response to a public consultation, funding for Ilkley Literature Festival was being reinstated.

The Council's opposition Conservative group put forward an amended budget, which called for Council Tax to be frozen and for Labour's programme to build four new swimming pools to be scrapped.

More funding would go towards new schools, public toilets in town centres and extending the Growth Zone enterprise scheme to the whole district, the meeting heard.

Councillor Simon Cooke, the deputy Conservative leader and its budget spokesman, said there was "no justification" for raising Council Tax, and said savings could be made by ending the "free collection service for union subsidies".

He said: "It's wrong to carry on subsidising Labour's friends in the unions."

The Liberal Democrat group also called for Council Tax to be frozen when it put forward its budget amendment.

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, the Liberal Democrat leader, said going by previous years, the extra cash raised would only end up sat in Council reserves.

To cheers from the Conservatives, she said: "We would prefer to let people keep their money in their pockets and decide how they want to spend it."

Cllr Sunderland also criticised Labour for bringing in the Living Wage for Council employees but not those working for its contractors - in particular, home care workers.

She said: "It's actually sheer hypocrisy to do that."

Councillor Alyas Karmani, leader of the Bradford Independent Group, railed against the Government's austerity programme, saying it was not even bringing the deficit down.

He warned it could provoke unrest in the north, saying: "It is about decimating and destroying the public sector in the UK and destroying northern cities. That's what this is all about."

Green group leader Councillor Martin Love welcomed the decision to start paying the lowest-paid council staff the Living Wage, although he said it was a shame the Labour group was not signing the Living Wage Foundation charter, which commits the authority to paying the rate long-term.

On Labour's budget, he said: "I think the Executive has made as good a fist of it as they could have done."

And Councillor Brian Morris (Ukip, Keighley West), said: "There's a lot of good ideas around and it's just a shame that all sides can't get together to work this out."

He called for councillors' allowances to be cut, saying there was little that set councillors apart from the rest of the public, "other than egos".

Voting began, but it soon became clear as councillors' names were being read out that an out-of-date list of elected members was being used.

This prompted an anti-cuts protester in the public gallery to shout: "You can't set the budget. You can't do it. It's illegal. You can't set it with a false list."

Lord Mayor Mike Gibbons, who was chairing the meeting, responded: "It's not a false list, don't be silly."

Officers were scrambled to find an up-to-date list, and the Labour budget was passed, after the Liberal Democrat and Conservative amendments were voted down.

Labour councillors voted for the budget, with Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors voting against it and Greens, Ukip and most independents abstaining.