PLANS to slash Bolton Council’s budget and raise council tax by 4.8 per cent are expected to be rubber-stamped tonight.

The council is proposing to make £12.5 million worth of cuts over the next two years, as well as using £30 million of its reserves to offset the need for further savings.

Cllr Cliff Morris, the council leader, is expected to tell councillors that reductions in government funding since 2011 of £155 million have now made it “almost impossible to provide anything other than the statutory minimum” for many services.

At last week’s cabinet meeting, it was announced that savings in waste disposal costs mean that planned cuts to school crossing patrol services will not go ahead.

Opposition parties are expected to oppose the council tax rise, which is made up of a 1.8 per cent general increase and a 3 per cent rise ring-fenced to fund adult social care.

It had initially been proposed to raise residents’ council tax by 3.99 per cent, before the government announced in December that it will allow local authorities to increase their Adult Social Care Precept by three per cent, rather than the previous two per cent.

Both the Tories and UKIP are saying that the council should be using more of its cash reserves.

Cllr Morris will say that the council would have “no plan B” without its reserves.