LABOUR described the new Tory budget at Derbyshire County Council as "lacking in drive and imagination" as a council tax rise of 1.5% was set for 2010-11.

The opposition party put forward five amendments to the £657m budget, which does not include cash for education, before it was set at a full council meeting yesterday.

It said savings could be achieved by taking £2m from the council's reserves and £650,000 from the authority's risk-management budget.

Labour leader Anne Western said an extra £500,000 could then be spent on increasing apprenticeships for young people; £500,000 on repairing damage to roads and pavements caused by the bad weather; and £150,000 to support the bid by Creswell Crags for World Heritage Site status.

Her party also wanted £500,000 annual funding, kick-started by a one-off additional £500,000, for schemes aimed at improving the lives of elderly people and their carers.

Labour's shadow cabinet member for education, Alan Charles, also hoped to block £6.4m towards a new library in Ashbourne and improvements to Matlock's records office and local studies library.

Instead, he said the cash should be spent on urgent repairs and improvements to the county's schools.

But all five amendments were blocked at yesterday's meeting, with the Conservatives preferring to stick to the wording of their own budget.

Cabinet member for finance and management, Councillor John Harrison, said the budget should be treated carefully because the recession may not yet be over.

He said lower grants expected from the Government in the future hung over the council like "the sword of Damocles".

Responding to the schools point after the meeting, council leader Andrew Lewer said the authority was investigating "a whole range of ways of providing new funding" and that some of the council's buildings could be sold to cover part of this cash.

Mrs Western said she was disappointed the Tories had turned down good proposals for "party political reasons".

The agreed 1.5% rise will mean a council tax increase for band D homes in 2010-11, from £1,061.30 to £1,077.22.