NEWPORT'S council tax payers will see their bills go up by average of 3.5 per cent from April.

The expected increase will go towards paying for a £270 million budget which is £10 million, or 4.6 per cent, more than last year.

Most of the extra money will go towards education and social care but there will be no cuts to frontline services and no redundancies.

Following a sometimes bad-tempered debate, Labour members and Councillor Simon Lane, who was expelled from the Tory group last year, supported the budget.

The Conservative opposition, who put forward an alternative budget suggesting a 2.95 per cent rise in council tax, and Liberal Democrats voted against.

Council leader Bob Bright said the authority had received just £5 million more from the Assembly for next year, an increase on last year's allocation of just two per cent.

But they had found 2.4 million worth of savings and will be using more than £5 million from the council's own balances.

"We are justifiably proud of the quality of our services. All the available data shows we are performing better than other authorities in Wales and we are continuing to improve," said Councillor Bright.

He added the budget demonstrated they could provide vital services at economical cost.

Council tax in Newport was currently the fourth lowest in Britain and the rise would mean Band D households will be paying £718.42, £24 extra a month, before the addition of community and Gwent Police precepts.

Conservative leader Matthew Evans put forward an alternative budget which proposed a council tax of £714.62 for Band D payers.

He said his group had identified savings of £198,216 which included publishing Newport Matters, the council's own paper, only when it had sufficient revenue from advertisers, and reducing the Riverfront Theatre subsidy.