Council leader Joe Cullinane has stepped up the stand-off with the Scottish Government over budgets.

Councils across Scotland were told to accept the proposed Scottish Government local government settlement - which is yet to be approved by Holyrood - by the end of last week.

At least five authorities, including North Ayrshire Council, have refused to accept the offer from the SNP Government.

Now council leader Joe Cullinane has stated that the current offer would result in a cut of £9.2 million - adding to the financial strain on local services.

He told the Times that the administration would be lobbying opposition leaders at Holyrood.

The settlement includes conditions around teacher numbers and a cap in council tax increases to three per cent.

“The SNP needs at least one opposition party to back their budget and that means opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament have the power to demand a fair deal for North Ayrshire Council and all other local authorities.

“Since 2010, £73million has been removed from North Ayrshire Council’s budget. Jobs have been lost and services withdrawn.

“Year on year cuts are making it increasingly difficult to deliver a budget that meets the needs of our communities – we need MSPs to stop the cuts.

“I know that the Tory UK Government are fixated on austerity. I absolutely get that, over a long period, the block grant has been cut.

“I have lambasted the Tories for doing so, clearly stating that austerity is a political choice that is hurting the most vulnerable in society.

“However, people didn’t campaign for a Scottish Parliament so that it could be a conveyor belt for Tory policies.

“The reality for 2017/18 though is that the Scottish Government’s budget is increasing by £418million.

“That is before you factor in the wealth of new tax powers, including full flexibility over income tax, that have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament. That means it is a clear political choice for the SNP to dump these cuts onto councils.

“With future years projected to be ‘tougher’, what kind of future can we expect for local democracy when council budgets are cut by 3.5 per cent in the year that the Scottish Government’s own budget increases?”

However, the Scottish Government claimed the ball was in councils’ courts

A Scottish government spokeswoman said: “We have received no rejections from councils.

“The Scottish government has treated local government very fairly despite the cuts to the Scottish budget from the UK government.

“The overall increase in spending power to support local authority services amounts to £241m or 2.3 per cent.”