Arguments over the Oasis leisure centre dominated the debate over Swindon Borough Council’s budget for next year.

But despite Liberal Democrat and Independent Tory support for a Labour proposal to guarantee £5m for the Oasis, and the ruling Conservative group having one councillor missing and one who initially voted the wrong way, the Conservative majority won and the administration’s budget was adopted.

It will see a general fund of £153m for day-to-day spending over the next financial year, largely funded by council tax which will go up by 4.99 per cent. Nearly three per cent of the increase will be ringfenced to pay for adult social care.

Deputy leader and cabinet member for finance Russell Holland introduced his budget with an emotive speech, highlighting how most of it would be spent on vulnerable children and adults.

“Eighty per cent of this budget expressly concerns children and adults who are most in need in our town. It is vital that we talk about them," he said.

“We need to talk about children who live in homes where parents have drug or alcohol problems. Children who have witnessed or directly been victims of domestic violence. Children who if left in the care of their parents would come to serious harm. Children who if not supervised for 24 hours a day in a secure setting, would most likely take their own lives.

“This budget is providing the funding necessary to do everything we can to protect and support vulnerable children.

“This budget concerns a young man, who cannot toilet himself. He needs help and is now of an age where he will transition from children’s services to adults’ services. There are 300 other young people like John who require help to live independently. This budget will meet those needs.”

He added: “The nature of the services provided mean unless you know or have cause to see the services which are provided, it just won’t affect you. This means the 220,000 people in Swindon, just won’t see where 80 per cent of their council tax is being spent.

“We have a moral duty to provide services to the best possible standard. No doubt the calls for more on potholes are louder than the whispers of the vulnerable, but we must speak up on their behalf.”

An amendment was immediately put forward by the Labour group’s finance spokesman Kevin Small.

He said the group’s budget would be the same size overall, and have the same council tax increase but he promised radical differences to Coun Holland’s proposals. He promised £110, 000 to bring back Groundwell Park and Ride site into use, £100,000 to deal with damage caused by parking on verges, and £120,000 to fund 20mph zones wherever the local community wanted them.

The centrepiece was a pledge to allocate £200,000 to the Oasis, to allow the council to borrow £5m “for immediate emergency repairs to the building. This will be backed up with revenue support of £100,000 to make it more attractive to a private operator to take on.

“This is real money not empty promises. We must not let this iconic building become another Mechanics’ or Locarno.”

Labour group leader Jim Grant said to councillors: “If you want to keep the Oasis as a community leisure centre affordable to all this is your last chance to save it.”

The Labour amendment was supported by Lib Dem Stan Pajak and Oliver Donachie of the Independent Tories – but Conservative councillor Matthew Courtliff described it as a “finger in the air budget – it’s totally uncosted. It would bankrupt the council on 20mph zones alone.”

Coun Donachie said: “I don’t know if you’re down with the kids these days, but they would describe that as cringe, or cringe-worthy.”

Despite that support, and Conservative councillor Jenny Jefferies initially voting for the Labour motion before correcting herself, it was defeated by 29 votes to 26.

The budget motion was passed by the same margin.

A subsequent motion to approve the 4.99 per cent council tax increase was opposed only by Coun Donachie and his group colleague Emma Faramarzi.