AN EMERGENCY budget which York's council leaders have vowed will reverse almost £1 million of cuts to "essential" services has tonight been approved.

The Labour group which controls City of York Council say their financial plans for the rest of 2011/12 will restore funding for short breaks for disabled children, day care transport, youth services and the city's Holocaust Memorial Day, as well as providing extra money for flood defences.

The party says it will pay for its commitments through measures including reducing use of agency staff, increasing recycling rates and using a £200,000 underspend in the authority's 2010/11 budget. It has also pledged to scrap a £1.4 million scheme for a new council office in Acomb.

The budget was debated at a full meeting of the authority tonight, and council leader James Alexander said: "Our budget decreases the council's debt position, decreases borrowing and still reverses cuts to essential services for the most vulnerable people in York made under the previous council administration.

"It shows we are financially competent, prudent and honours the manifesto pledge we were elected on. We are putting the priorities of the people of York first and we are standing up for them."

The Conservatives tabled an amendment to Labour's plans, calling for the council's budget for trade union convenors to be cut and for a new cabinet portfolio for crime and community safety, which gives its holder an allowance of £14,700 a year, to be scrapped.

The party said this would restore funding to provide 15 hours a week of free childcare for 20 disadvantaged two-year-olds in the city, but their proposals were defeated.

"The simple question is whether you support provision for care for two-year-old children, or provision for Labour councillors and unions," Conservative leader Ian Gillies told the meeting.

"It is interesting where the priorities within this administration lie. The first thing this cabinet has done is increase the number of allowances for its members, which was totally unnecessary."

The same meeting saw a blueprint for the future of development in York over the next 20 years, which earmarks building 800 new homes annually through the Local Development Framework (LDF) core strategy, voted through. For the full story, see The Press on Friday.