COUNCILLORS have approved a budget that they say will inject hundreds of millions of pounds of new economic activity into Hampshire.

Hampshire County Council leaders agreed on a £1.9 billion budget, which council leader Cllr Roy Perry described as “careful, cautious and competent”.

It will see £281 million spent on creating 11, 300 new school places, an extra £136 million on upgrading and repairing roads and £13.75 million on bringing superfast broadband to 95 per cent of homes and businesses.

The council also agreed to spend £2.8 million on youth services and short breaks for disabled children, which had been under threat.

No new cuts were announced, but Hampshire’s libraries, rubbish tips and bus service have already been affected by £240 million worth of cutbacks from last year’s budget, which will continue to take effect this year. All county council staff have also been offered voluntary redundancy.

As previously reported, the council has lost 61 per cent of its Government funding during the past six years.

However, Cllr Perry told the full council meeting in Winchester last Thursday that he believed Hampshire stood “in good stead for the future”.

He said it was due to the council’s size, its ability to replenish reserve funds and its strategy to “use them to balance the most dramatic impacts and effects of the Government’s reduced support to county councils”.