Decisions to be made over Portsmouth's spending priorities and council tax level

A DEBATE was set to take place today over Portsmouth's spending programmes and plans to raise council tax by up to four per cent to protect services.

The council’s Tory cabinet was set to meet at 1pm to pour over its £11m revenue saving plans, which include cuts to the domestic abuse service, a hate crime unit and adult day care centres. A separate £12.9m pot of cash in the council’s capital programme could be used to fund around 400 more school places and a state-of-the-art traffic signal system to ease congestion. Another £73.1m could be borrowed from the banks to finance spending, and the plan is to set aside most of that to buy more properties in order to rent out, in return for an income. The Tory cabinet will sign off the proposals before a meeting of the full council tomorrow, where they will be decided upon.

Ahead of the meeting, campaigners are expected to stage a rally against any cuts to the council’s domestic abuse service, and a petition will be brought to members about the need to protect vulnerable women.

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