THE mayor of Copeland’s "zero cuts" budget has cleared the final hurdle after being voted through this week.

Mayor Mike Starkie presented his financial plans to the full council on February 5 in what was set to be the first of two scheduled meetings to thrash out an agreement.

But the budget was voted through at the initial sitting with just one abstention and after the Labour group did not present an alternative.

The mayor pledged that the budget would deliver zero cuts to frontline public services for the fourth consecutive year as part of a continuing mission to run the authority “like a modern 21st-century business”.

The move will see council tax rises set below inflation, lower than neighbouring councils and the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Meanwhile, car parking charges across the borough will be frozen for the second year running in a bid to boost trade in the town.

The achievement comes despite a devastating cyber attack, a crippling PFI deal, a 26 per cent drop in Government funding and financial mismanagement from previous administrations.

Mayor Starkie said: “On taking office in May 2015 our budget was £9.1m and now it is reduced to £8.6m which means in real terms we have had to find savings of 16 per cent of the entire budget.

“Trying to find these savings had been a very difficult undertaking which officers and colleagues have worked hard to achieve.

“The cyber attack which targeted our organisation was simply devastating and has resulted in a total redesign of our IT infrastructure, security and working practices.

“It caused severe and direct inconvenience to our residents and extensive challenges for our management and staff and, indeed, our reputation.

The highlights of the budget include

Limiting it to 1.95 per cent. The council could have chosen to hike the council tax up to 3 per cent.

Car parking charges.

£1 investment in the council’s bereavement services which will go towards the installation of a second cremator and improvements to Whitehaven cemetery.

The opening of a Tourist Information Centre based in the Beacon Copeland as part of a new strategy to claim a bigger slice of the £2.9bn brought into the Cumbrian economy every year via the Lake District National Park.

A social services programme designed to help the most vulnerable including a programme to help the socially isolated and survivors of domestic violence.