AN increase of 1.99% in council taxes will help pay for a reprieve for threatened school lollipop patrols, continued support for vulnerable people on welfare and extra winter road gritting, it was announced last week.

The measures are part of a package of spending approved by Devon County Council's cabinet last Friday.

The threat to reduce the number of lollipop patrols at the county's schools to save £100,000 had been a key issue in the budget setting process. Council leader John Hart said he had found the extra money to continue the same level of school crossing patrols for the coming year. But he said the council would still need to talk to schools about how they might fund the service in the future and warned the gap between funding and spending was growing ever larger.

Mr Hart said the ending of a service to help the most vulnerable benefit claimants obtain small grants for essential household items was another issue consistently raised by councillors. This service had been devolved to local councils by the Government, which then axed the grant it had provided to pay for it.

But earlier this month the Government agreed extra funding for the coming year and the county council is topping this up to £1-million to ensure the service can continue.

There will also be an extra £100,000 to preserve road gritting routes in winter, £100,000 for transport and £40,000 for the Citizens' Advice Bureau.

Cllr Hart said: 'We have held detailed consultations with representative groups across Devon, there has been a widespread public consultation and we have had our own in-house scrutiny meetings with councillors.

'They have told us what they most value and we have listened. Where we have been able to find some extra money we have done so.'

The budget for 2015/16, which will be discussed by the full county council today (Thursday) still calls for £46-million of savings.

The cabinet backed a council tax rise of 1.99% to prevent even tougher cuts in services. The increase will add less than 50p a week to the average council taxpayer's bill but will bring in £6.2-million over the next year. An average Band D taxpayer will now pay £1,161.27 for county council services — up £22.68 on last year.

Both Mr Hart and deputy leader John Clatworthy issued a stark warning about the future. Mr Hart said: 'All the main political parties are committed to holding the current spending plans for the next two years and for Devon that means at least £34-million will have to be saved next year.

'I would say we are between a rock and a hard place and the gap is getting bigger every year.'

Mr Hart said a council tax increase was essential: 'The recovery is gathering pace week by week with record numbers of people in work and our economic growth among the best in the world, but I am very well aware that household budgets are still under strain.'

Deputy leader John Clatworthy said the Government had claimed Devon had received a 0.5% increase in spending this year when in fact it was a 14% reduction.

He said: 'Councils can only cope with cuts for so long, but it's going to get harder before it gets better so we need to be prudent and business-like.

'We cannot control demand for our services — or the weather. We can only control our own costs and to date our core staffing has reduced in the order of 33 percent.'

• The Liberal Democrat group on the council is proposing an amendment at today's meeting, which would cut the county council's spending on public relations and marketing by £400,000, cut £200,000 from advertising spending and save £2.6- million from the extra £5.5-million the council wants to put into its 'transformation and resilience' funds.

The Lib Dems want to put back £1.7-million to keep the county's buses on the road.

Fixing Devon's roads, tackling road drainage problems and weed spraying would also get a £1.5-million boost under its proposals, said Cllr Alan Connett, Lib Dem leader.