Manchester City Council is increasing council tax by almost 5% next year to help pay for social care 

However it says the planned council cuts won’t be as harsh as first announced due to it receiving higher dividend from Manchester Airport Group which it part owns.

Back in October, the Council said it needed to save between £40m and £75m over the next three years but   after receiving £15m from the Airport Group, the savings goal has now been cut to £30m.

The initial 160 job losses has also been reduced to 77 based on the new proposals.

The council proposes to raise council tax by a total of 4.99% in 2017-18 and 2018-/19 and 1.99% in 2019-20 to raise a further £17.3m.

The council has been forced to save £250m since 2010 and there will be still cuts to adult social services waste collections, street cleaning and parks.

The plans to slash the school crossings budget have been halved so that only the safest crossings will now lose their patrols, but Manchester run markets in Harpurhey and Wythenshawe are still under threat.

Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester council, said: “The last few years have been very challenging for the council as we have had to deal with continuing cuts at the same time as increasing pressures on services. This has been exacerbated by unfair government funding settlements which have hit big cities such as Manchester the hardest.”

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