Newcastle City Council budget cuts to reach £327m by 2020

The council is facing £327m budget cuts by 2022

Disabled drivers will have to pay for parking, council tax will be raised and library hours will be cut as part of a council's latest budget cuts.

Newcastle City Council will reduce spending by £60m by 2022, resulting in total cuts of £327m since 2010.

The council's Labour leader Nick Forbes said there was "only so much more" it could do to protect frontline services.

The Liberal Democrat opposition said the budget contained "deep structural and conceptual flaws".

Finance spokesman Colin Ferguson said there was "no vision, no idea of what local government looks like in the city in the 2020s and beyond".

The Liberal Democrats had suggested alternative cuts such as scrapping a plan to spend £800,000 on an anti-fly tipping campaign and a ward spring clean and redirecting funding from reserves.

'Re-imagined and reinvented'

But Mr Forbes accused the Liberal Democrats of "cheap political shots" and "complete financial illiteracy".

"We have re-imagined and reinvented ourselves in every way we can and this has delivered significant savings," Mr Forbes said.

"But, despite our best efforts, the scale of government funding reductions and increasing demand for services mean there is only so much more we can do."

Council tax bills will go up by 3.95% this year with 1% ring-fenced for adult social care, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Blue badge holders will have to pay for parking in council-run multi-storey and off-street car parks.

The Shopmobility service, which provides scooters and wheelchairs for people with mobility problems, will be reduced from six to four days a week.

Library hours will reduce and staffing cut and some museums will close on bank holidays.

Forty local authority jobs will be lost.