Love was in the air at the town hall as the Labour Group paired up with an opposition group to push through its budget on Valentine's Day.

The budget includes an increase in council tax of more than five per cent as well as reductions to services such as recycling and street lighting.

On Wednesday (February 14) the Labour Group was in need of support from other councillors to approve this increase in council tax and these reductions to services as well as the use of of £10m in reserves to balance the books. It paired up with an opposition group in the form of the councillors for Horwich and Blackrod First, with whom the leading group came to an agreement on amendments, to push through its budget.

As a consequence the cuts such as those to recycling – with beige bin collections to be reduced to once a month – and such as those to street lighting – with brightness to be reduced by more than a quarter – are set in stone for this year in spite of opposition by the majority of residents at the time of the consultation.

In a half-hour speech the council leader Nick Peel said these reductions were the results of austerity.

Cllr Peel said: "This budget is about making these cuts the safest possible in order to protect services.

"It is about cross-party consensus across the council chamber, as unpalatable as it is, a rise in council tax has to go ahead in order to prevent a worse situation."

The Horwich and Blackrod First amendments centred around the use of the one-off funding from Recycle for Greater Manchester (R4GM) to avoid cuts to libraries of £100,000 and to spend on the collecting of bulky waste and the cleaning of backstreets across the borough.

The amendments by the other parties centred around the use of the £1.2m funding from R4GM to avoid other cuts and to spend in alternative areas but these were blocked in favour of the Horwich and Blackrod First amendments as set out by their group leader David Grant.

Cllr Grant said: "When I saw what the Labour Group were proposing I spoke to them about it like when I supported the Conservative Group [last year]. 

"We work with whatever administration is in charge. It should be a case of conversation rather than confrontation and not opposition for opposition's sake."

The budget comes into effect for the financial year from April 2024.

This article was written by Jack Tooth. To contact him, email jack.tooth@newsquest.co.uk or follow @JTRTooth on Twitter.