MORE than 600 jobs will be lost at Bradford Council after it set what one councillor described as "the most devastating budget the council has faced".

The authority, which is having to save £61.5m over the next two years, agreed a host of cuts to services including libraries, home care for the elderly, youth services, tourism offices and police community support officers during a heated meeting at City Hall last night.

Meanwhile, anti-cuts protesters outside the building staged a 'die-in' protest, by pretending to be dead and drawing chalk outlines of their bodies on the pavement along with the slogan 'Cuts kill'.

Click here to see how we reported live on the budget meeting

One campaigner, trade unionist Jason Feather, told the Telegraph & Argus: "These cuts have a real effect on people's lives. People are dying because of these cuts."

Council tax will now go up by the legal maximum of 3.99 per cent, which includes a new two per cent levy to raise cash for social care.

Bin collections will move from weekly to fortnightly, and winter gritting and street lighting will also be scaled back.

The ruling Labour group, which has a narrow majority on the council, pushed through its budget plans despite failing to win the backing of councillors from the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Greens, UKIP or Bradford Independent Group.

Addressing the meeting, council leader Councillor David Green, said: "I have no pleasure in moving this budget. I have no pleasure in the cuts we are having to make. But people need to be aware where that fault lies."

He accused the government of "an unprecedented attack on this city" and other cities in the north of England, adding that it "calls into question the whole rhetoric of the Northern Powerhouse."

Councillor Imran Khan, Labour's executive member for the environment, defended the move to fortnightly general waste collections, saying it wasn't just a money-saver, but was "the right thing to do".

He said: "There's financial benefits of £1m a year. It delivers environmental benefits by reducing what's going into landfill and incineration."

And he criticised the Conservative group for opposing the move, saying they would prefer to poison the environment by "carrying on piling waste into landfill".

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Labour executive member in charge of libraries, said plans to move all but seven libraries to a volunteer-run model had prompted a big response from the public.

She said as a result, they had agreed to keep staff on at Wibsey, Wyke and Laisterdyke libraries, with a hybrid staff-and-volunteer model for Baildon and Clayton.

Councillor Val Slater, deputy council leader, said they had also reconsidered cuts to support for community groups and sports clubs, and would now undertake a review of this support before cuts were agreed.

The opposition Conservative group put forward an amended budget proposal which would have seen cuts to trade union support and the scrapping of the climate change team.

Conservative leader Councillor Simon Cooke said the climate change team had been fixated on the Saltaire hydro scheme rather than the bigger issues.

And deputy Conservative leader Councillor John Pennington read out a handful of colourful suggestions to save money.

He provoked groans from the Labour group by suggesting trade unions should get less support, while adding that he believed in trade unions and thought they were "a good thing".

And he said: "You may well laugh at the suggestion of switching off traffic lights, but let's do so."

He said in some areas, traffic lights were causing hold-ups by stopping cars to make way for "non-existent pedestrians".

Cllr Pennington then suggested cutting the council's human resources budget, prompting Cllr Green to interrupt him by saying: "We are doing it."

"Good," Cllr Pennington replied.

The Liberal Democrats, who had previously said they would not be putting forward budget amendments, did so in the end - suggesting cuts to the council's press office and ticket subsidies at St George's Hall, instead of home care visits and community development work.

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, Liberal Democrat leader, lambasted the council's Labour leadership for wasting money by fitting colourful, flashing lights on the top of Margaret McMillan Tower, the former central library which is now the home of children's services.

And she was scathing of plans to replace 15-minute welfare calls to the elderly with a telephone call instead, saying the visits could be that person's only company.

She said the phone's ring would be "the loneliest sound in the world".

Green group leader Councillor Martin Love described this year's budget as "the most devastating budget the council has faced".

He said his group backed the changes to a fortnightly bin collection, but could not support the budget as a whole.

And he said they particularly objected to plans to start charging £35 a year for garden waste collections, saying it could result in people putting more garden waste in their main bin instead.

Councillor Alyas Karmani, leader of the Bradford Independent Group, said they would not be supporting Labour's budget.

Cllr Karmani said he found it quite amazing that Prime Minister David Cameron's own mother had signed a petition against cuts to services in Oxford.

He said: "Welcome to our world, that's what I say. Welcome to Bradford."

Cllr Karmani called on councillors to take a stand and "just agree that cuts are wrong", adding: "In no way, shape or form are we going to support this current budget or any of the amendments, which I think just add insult to injury."

The budget was taken to the vote, with the Liberal Democrat and Conservative amendments both failing to win the required support.

The Labour proposals were then voted through, despite failing to win support from the other groups.

After the meeting, Tariq Karamat, who campaigned to save Laisterdyke library, spoke of his delight and thanked the hundreds of local people who had supported the campaign, including schools and businesses.

And Brian Pearson, secretary of Woodlands Cricket Club in Oakenshaw, who had campaigned against cuts to rental subsidies and rate rebates for community organisations and clubs, said the council had listened, but that they now needed to get fully involved in the review.