Decisions around green bin charges were likened to the situation in Ukraine during an at times testy meeting of Cheshire West and Chester Council, where a maximum council tax rise, job losses and funding cuts were rubber-stamped.

Full council convened at Wyvern House in Winsford on Thursday to discuss the new budget, with the four-hour meeting lasting long into the evening.

Members agreed to approve the council’s revenue budget of £411m for the coming financial year, in what finance chiefs had labelled the ‘most difficult ever’ financial backdrop they have had to deal with since the council’s creation in 2009.

Included in the approved budget was a council tax increase of 4.99 per cent - made up of a 2.99 per cent increase in basic council tax and an adult social care precept of two per cent - which will see a Band D bill rise by £89.55-a-year to £1,884.07. The rise is the maximum any council is permitted to adopt by government rules without triggering a local referendum.

There will also be cuts of £29.8m next year, with further savings required over the following two years. There will also be 124 job cuts – with 46 in the coming year - and a reorganisation of senior level posts. A review of services including museums, libraries and shopmobility will also take place in an effort to save cash.

The opposition Conservative group tabled amendments, which included more investment in public rights of way, footpaths, gully maintenance and funds to support two council placements for graduates, and one which centred around how green bin charge increases were decided. But these were rejected.

Council leader Louise Gittins said alternative apprenticeship levy funding would be used to hire graduates.

Tabling the Conservative amendments, Cllr Mark Stocks (Cons) said they would help deal with issues around flooding which he said were likely to be worsened by climate change.

He said: “Many of the residents who pay this council tax live on these roads that are flooded.

"They are paying huge amounts of council tax and many of them receive very little in council services, they haven’t got an educational need, many don’t have adult social care issues, but they contribute vast sums of money to this authority and on the main access to services is through the highway network. And the highway network has been a shambles of late."

Responding, Cllr Carol Gahan, cabinet member for finance (Lab), questioned how it would be paid for. She told the chamber: "I said at the start of the meeting that 70p in every pound goes on adult and social care, that leaves 30p in every pound to do everything else – collect the bins, fix the roads, pay for schools.”

An amendment tabled around how increases in green bin charges are decided led to a fiery exchange in the chamber.

A 25 per cent increase to the fortnightly opt-in green bin waste collection service was announced on January 4 by the council, raising it to £50.

But the new amendment called for future decisions on green waste collection charges to be made by councillors as part of the annual budget.

Cllr Adrian Waddelove, who represents Farndon for the Conservatives, had previously claimed the green bin rises were ‘unlawful’, a claim firmly rejected by the council, which said green bins were a discretionary charge and that councils had the right to recoup their costs without going through a budget process requiring a vote by councillors.

In the meeting last night Cllr Karen Shore (Lab), deputy leader and cabinet member for environment, again rejected the claims and said the green bin cost was ‘a charge not a tax’, visibly annoyed, she said: "That is what you get as a rookie councillor when you do not check your facts properly."

Cllr Sam Naylor (Lab) said: "We're talking about a billion pound organisation that's under financial strain.

"We're looking at incidental items when you're talking about 70p in every pound of council tax going to kids and elderly people, and here we are messing about and falling out about green bin charge and 30p increase in car parking, get real."

Cllr Waddelove criticised the comments, saying: "Cllr Naylor described the green bin charge as incidental, I don’t think the people of Ukraine would call democracy incidental."

The amendment was defeated.

A vote was then taken on the budget and it was passed with 41 voting for, 24 against and one abstention.