OPPOSITION councillors at Newtown St Boswells have criticised a decision to hike up council tax ahead of a final agreement from Holyrood.

A deal between the ruling SNP and the Scottish Greens in the Scottish Parliament at the end of last week led to several concessions being agreed.

And part of the new spending plans is an additional £95 million being given to the country’s 32 local authorities.

It is estimated that around £2 million of the agreement will be wired to Scottish Borders Council - money, it is claimed, that could have mitigated the need for a record council tax hike of 4.84 percent.

Councillor Stuart Bell, who leads the opposition benches at Newtown, said: “I specifically warned the council meeting that we might be premature taking budget decisions on February 26 and look what has happened - the following day we heard of more money.

“The Tory SBC administration repeatedly tried to blame the SNP government for local council tax rises, but this recent extra funding would have been enough to limit local taxation to three percent rather than the nearly five percent rise which was approved.”

Members of Scottish Borders Council passed the Conservative/Independent administration’s spending plans by 21 votes to 11.

To meet the price tag for planned new schools and care homes, administration councillors insisted that the maximum 4.84 percent council tax increase was necessary.

Opposition councillor Heather Anderson, who leads the SNP’s budget group, added: “Despite warnings, the Tories forced us to make a decision on council tax before we had all the details.

“The Scottish Government settlement had not been concluded when the vote was taken, and the UK Budget won’t be announced until March 11.

“Things might have to change again.

“And when you examine the numbers, the full council tax rise is not needed this year. “I call on the ruling Conservative administration to explore every avenue to use the extra Scottish Government money to limit the burden on Borders Council taxpayers.”

But leader of Scottish Borders Council Shona Haslam has hit back, claiming that the additional £2 million of funding only partially mitigates for the savings her administration had to find.

She said: "I would love to reduce council tax in the Borders, but until the SNP start funding local government properly then that is simply not possible.

"The additional £2 million will allow us not to cut some of the things that we were going to cut, vital services that people rely on.

"This should not be looked upon as a gift, or any sort of largesse from the Scottish Government.

"What the opposition seem to have forgotten is that in addition to the 25 percent cut in our capital budget from the Scottish Government we also had to make £8 million worth of additional savings.

"The additional £2m from the Scottish Government is hardly generous when put in those terms. "It amounts to less than one percent of our annual budget.

"When we are faced with increased costs on adult social care, education, roads and continued ring fencing of our core budget this additional £2 million amounts to a drop in a very very large ocean.

"We are still facing a 25 percent cut in capital and finding £6 million in savings while having to build three new high schools, two new care homes and fix roads that are suffering from 10 years of underinvestment from when the SNP were in the administration of the council."