Suffolk County Council is set to end its support for the arts and museums and close two of its three record offices while putting tax bills up by a maximum 5% in the spring.

The council is also expecting to save £11m on reductions to staff and will be making cuts to its trading standards and fire service computer systems over the next year.

The proposals have been unveiled as the council's scrutiny of them is due to start next week before they are formally considered by its cabinet at the end of this month and by the full council in mid February.

The council needs to spend an extra £74m on vulnerable adults and children over the next two years - but over the same period needs to save almost £65m.

It hopes to cut about £30m from its adult care budget by changing the way it operates and doing more to keep people in their own homes rather than moving into full-time care.

It is cutting staff to save £11m and is planning to spend nearly £16m from its reserves.

And it is planning a number of smaller cuts that are likely to have a major impact across the county.

It plans to stop core funding of arts and museums across Suffolk - a move that has caused dismay across the county.

East Anglian Daily Times: The county's records will be concentrated on The Hold at Ipswich.The county's records will be concentrated on The Hold at Ipswich. (Image: (C) Archant 2020)

The county's records are to be concentrated on The Hold in Ipswich with the closure of record offices in Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds.

In total there are dozens of spending reductions outlined in the 112-page budget document.

These include £45,000 from Trading Standards and £150,000 from the fire and rescue services ICT budget - coming at the time that its emergency call centre is moving back to Suffolk from Cambridgeshire.

Deputy council leader Richard Rout is responsible for finances at the county. He said: "This is the most challenging budget-setting process the council has faced for many years. But once again, we are putting adult and children’s care at the heart of our plans.

“However, in order to ensure appropriate levels of funding for these key services, and those most in need in Suffolk, we must make difficult decisions about all the other services we deliver, and how we deliver them.

“Our proposed budget next year will be around £752 million, of which £105m alone is down to these cost pressures from inflation and increased demand."

The opposition Green, LibDem, and Independent Group was not happy about the plans.

Their leader Andrew Stringer said: “We have warned for years that the Conservatives should have made small tax increases over the years.

"But now they are in a position where they are forced to increase council tax to the maximum while also introducing serious cuts that will affect us all.

"We have been repeatedly told by Suffolk Conservatives that electing Conservative MPs for all five of the county’s constituencies gives Suffolk a stronger voice in Parliament - this assertion surely now lies in tatters."

Mr Rout said the need for cuts this year had not been caused by smaller council tax reductions in previous years.

He said: "Opposition politicians have called on us to spend to the maximum - but that would only have brought in an extra £3.8m and they wanted to spend that on more things, not boost our reserves."

The proposed council tax rise would put an extra £58.24 on the annual bill for a Band B home in Suffolk, the most numerous size in the county,  and an extra £74.36 on a Band D home.