The Isle of Wight Council has approved a council tax rise of 2.99 per cent, to be split between adult social care and our main council tax bill.
Councillors have this evening (Wednesday), been meeting at County Hall in Newport.
From April 1, a Band D taxpayer will pay £2,043.04 for public services (up from £1977.71 in 2021/22).
In a last minute change, Conservative group amendments were voted through and added to the budget plans.
Read: Isle of Wight council tax and budget meeting LIVE updates
It means the Isle of Wight Council's contact centre will not see cuts and more money will be spent on affordable housing, as it makes £3 million in savings.
What will the new Isle of Wight Council budget mean for me?
In a first vote, there were 19 votes for and also against the Conservative amendments, with an abstention from Cllr Daryll Pitcher.
It meant a casting vote went to chair Cllr Geoff Brodie who supported the Conservative plans.
The approved budget will cost the average price of a weekly shop extra for the year from April.
Cllr Geoff Brodie, Council chair.
Among the approved changes are a new fee per funeral, for those who want to livestream from the Isle of Wight's crematorium near Whippingham, and a rise in the cost of Wightcare.
More than £40 million will be spent on new capital projects, with a major investment promised in affordable housing and a new cultural centre, as part of the regeneration of Newport Harbour.
More than £1.5 million will be allocated to adult social care.
Binstead and Fishbourne Councillor Ian Dore called for plans to paint Shanklin's cliff lift to be put aside, in favour of extra defences for Binstead, which was hit badly by flooding in July 2021 and orginally tabled an amendment.
Instead, his flood improvement plan was added to the Isle of Wight Council's budget - funded via transport capital.
It means the cliff lift will be painted too.
Read more:
- Councillor vows to 'fight corner' of Binstead's flood hit community
- Binstead as homes and streets flooded
- Isle of Wight budget call for money for Binstead flooding
What were the alternative Isle of Wight Council budgets?
Alternative budgets were put forward by a number of opposition councillors - including the authority's Conservative group.
It was their plans that were eventually added to the budget and voted through.
They had called the Alliance Group budget a 'continuity budget' - saying it added to what had gone before - with the previous Conservative leadership.
Its leader, Cllr Joe Roberston, welcomed the focus on affordable homes, but called for more.
The 18-strong group have now won nearly double the budget to be spent on it (with money taken, said the Alliance Group's Cllr Phil Jordan, from plans for an Isle of Wight Council housing company).
Cllr Jordan had said this would "be the opposite of what we're trying to do."
The Conservatives also called for a promise that the "aspirational commitment" to developing brownfield sites would happen.
Cash will be allocated to restoring access paths to Island beaches and to planting trees and restoring hedgerows.
Liberal Democrat Cllr Andrew Garratt, for Parkhurst and Hunnyhill, originally called for a smaller three per cent rise in Wightcare costs and no funeral streaming fee, or budget cut for the council's contact centre, but his amendment was withdrawn.
He pledged support for the Alliance Group, as long its members did 'did not let him down.'
What else will I have to pay from April?
On top of that agreed rise, you will also have to pay extra for policing and the fire service, as well as whatever your town or parish council has agreed.
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