A £100m council cuts package was last night passed at a heavily guarded Newcastle Civic Centre.

Hundreds of protesters were met by police officers and security guards as Newcastle passed a budget set to see libraries close, swimming pools shut down and weekly bin collections axed.

Some protesters were searched as they entered the civic centre.

The cuts package was passed without 10 proposed Liberal Democrat amendments which the opposition group said would have saved £5m, kept libraries open and saved other services.

Labour insisted the savings were not costed, with council leader Nick Forbes claiming there was no choice but to push through the challenging cuts.

Mr Forbes said: “If we don’t save that money over the next three years, we will be unable to function, unable to pay our staff, unable to empty the bins, unable to maintain our roads, unable to support public transport and unable to look after vulnerable children and adults.”

And for those who urged the council not to make the cuts following a reduction in Government funding, Mr Forbes set out what he believed would happen if their advice was followed.

“Setting an illegal budget would make us a civic basket case. If we tried, we would find ourselves in gridlock, unable to pay suppliers, unable to pay wages, unable to look after the most vulnerable.

“And then Government-appointed administrators would arrive to impose a legal budget.”

Mr Forbes argued that the only way around the cuts would be to raise council tax by 50%. which, he said, would make Newcastle “the most expensive city in Britain to live”. The Labour council’s budget was fiercely opposed by Liberal Democrat group leader David Faulkner who said the actual three-year reduction was only around 13%..

He accused the council of trying to use worst-case scenarios on care funding and tax to push through an unpopular budget.

Mr Faulkner said: “Notwithstanding the desperate times ahead, I feel that the entire debate in the last four or five months has been characterised by spin. The £100m cuts figure is entirely wrong.”

Among the Lib Dem proposals was the suggestion of closing libraries one day a week to save them all.

The rejected motion means only two of the 10 libraries proposed for closure are safe, though talks are ongoing to save two more.

Me Faulkner said: “We could find the money needed and more, to save all libraries.”

The Lib Dem group also proposed to save cuts to apprenticeship schemes by axing public funding for trade union posts.

Mr Faulkner also suggested most households would accept a “modest” increase in council tax to offset the cuts.