Shropshire Council freezes council tax for 2012-13

Shropshire Council has backed plans to freeze council tax for the next year.

A full council meeting also approved the local authority's budget for 2012-14, including cuts of £24m.

Some 100 posts are expected to be cut in the next year, on top of more than 500 already gone at the Conservative-controlled local authority.

The council said many of the cuts had been made through voluntary redundancies or not filling behind people when they left the organisation.

The local authority needs to make savings of £86m by 2014.

Keith Barrow, leader of the council, said the cuts would only have a "marginal" impact on frontline services.

Special education

"I don't think people have noticed a great deal of difference given the amount of money we've taken out of the budget," he said.

More than £40m of savings will have been implemented by March, but the Labour and Liberal Democrat groups warned the effect of the cuts was only just starting to be felt.

The latest budget includes plans to sell council buildings and cut spending on special educational needs.

Schools in the county will see their main budgets frozen and face cuts of about £350,000 a year to other services.

About £200,000 a year will also be saved by reducing the special educational needs and psychology teams.

The council said the government's new pupil premium fund would help schools support children from low-income families.