MORE than 300 jobs will be lost at Cardiff council in the coming year as the authority tries to cut its spending by £14m.

Council tax will also rise by 2.9% for homes across the capital under the local authority’s budget plans for the next financial year.

Opening hours for some leisure centres will be cut back and a major shakeup of the city’s waste and street cleaning teams will be carried out to save money.

The details are laid out in the city’s draft budget proposals for 2010/11 which will be made public today.

Cardiff’s proposals follow announcements of cuts and council tax rises at authorities across the region including Bridgend, where a 4.8% council tax rise is expected and Rhondda Cynon Taf where a 3.95% rise is expected.

Caerphilly council will today hold a “budget seminar” before it sets its council tax rise later this month.

Cardiff council’s finance chief, Councillor Mark Stephens, said the loss of 300 jobs would be achieved without any compulsory redundancies. He said the £14m savings were the “largest the council has ever achieved in one year” and were being made possible by the reduction in the council’s 18,000-strong staffing levels.

“Through a combination of not filling existing vacancies, natural turnover, voluntary severance and early retirement, we will once again avoid the need for compulsory redundancies,” he said.

Mr Stephens added that the expected £3.5m savings from the council’s “strategic transformational change” programme could result in further job losses as the authority’s processes were streamlined.

Tory group leader David Walker said the council’s 3.1% rise in funding from the Welsh Assembly Government, which was partly based on the council’s growing population, should have enabled it to keep council tax lower.

“There are clearly efficiencies available which could keep council taxes down,” he said. “But the Liberal Democrat/Plaid executive has rejected them. They brought in consultants to find savings and efficiencies, prompted by the Conservative opposition.

“The consultants found over £20m of inefficiencies without a great deal of searching.

“The executive should be using these identified savings to keep council taxes down.

“They have been negligent and careless with taxpayers’ money.”

Council leader Rodney Berman said the city’s budget would enable it to continue to invest.

He said the council expects to open a replacement for Ty Gwyn special school, a new respite centre and a refurbished children’s home this year.

Cash will also be made available to develop a new structured park in Llanrumney, called Captain Henry Morgan’s Gardens; revamp the Loudon Square shops; invest £10m in school buildings and complete a new library in Radyr.

A further £1.4m will be invested in the city’s cycle network over the next two years and £250,000 will be added to the roads maintenance budget.

Mr Berman said: “We can’t afford to lose sight of our aim to forge a more just society and deliver sustained improvement in the quality of life in our capital.”

Cardiff council’s 2.9% council tax rise is equivalent to the current rate of consumer price inflation, although experts expect the inflation rate to rise again early this year before falling back.

The council is also planning to bring an end to the £29m borrowing splurge it announced last year to support the economy and press ahead with the city centre redevelopment and other projects.

It will borrow £6.8m next year and predicts that will fall to £4m in 2011/12 and £1.2m in 2012/13.