Bradford's hung Council took the term 'horse-trading' literally this week when it set about negotiating a budget.

One of the conditions of the Labour group allowing the budget through was that money be set aside for a new horse at Bradford Industrial Museum.

Norman, one of the Eccleshill centre's oldest working horses, retires soon and the Labour group argued his status as a tourist attraction meant he deserved a replacement.

As a result, group leaders drew up a budget paper which set aside £100,000 for museums and galleries infrastructure "including a new horse".

It was one of the more bizarre points in a document which also saw the Conservative group win £85,000 for uniformed children's organisations.

But the main negotiating points in Thursday's six-hour meeting hinged on education, social services and crime prevention.

Conservative group deputy leader Councillor Kris Hopkins said his group was satisfied with the money it was able to set aside for next year: "We should be about matching need and not spending for the sake of it, so our biggest gain was making sure this was a sustainable budget and not just for one year."

But he admitted that awarding £6,000 to the John Smith Foundation, which promotes democracy in the name of the former Labour leader, did cause problems.

"If there was one area I would not feel too comfortable with, it would be having a political name in the budget, but it is a relatively small amount of money," he said.

Labour group deputy leader Councillor Dave Green said gains, like £1 million in education, mirrored concessions elsewhere. "We would have wanted more money in the community safety initiative and area management funding, which fell by the wayside during negotiations. I think that, in particular, could have enabled local councillors to have a bigger say in the development of their areas."

But he said the group's biggest success was keeping the council tax increase to 3.97 per cent: "We have achieved one of the lowest council taxes in West Yorkshire and that would not have happened without our negotiations."

The Green group's Councillor David Ford said: "We asked for substantial sums in recycling, which we got, but we are not happy about cuts across the board - we wanted to protect social services and target cuts more effectively."

The Liberal Democrats, who opposed the budget, said it failed education and young people. The group's deputy leader Councillor David Ward said: "We had a better Government settlement than we expected and this was an opportunity, with a relatively small increase in council tax, to do an awful lot of good.

"We are putting a lot of money into education, but so are other authorities, and we have got to close the gap. Bradford is clearly under-funded in education."