An £11m blackhole would be plugged in a proposed budget outlining the first reduction in Merton council tax for 16 years.

Councillors are expected to rubber stamp the 1.4 per cent cut - equivalent to £1 per month for the average Band D household.

Consultants, controversially drafted in by the authority at a reported cost of more than £1,000-a-day, found the bulk of savings through better procurement methods, according to council leader David Williams.

He said: “This budget really illustrates their benefit. Without the in-house techniques they have brought we wouldn’t have been able to have found more than £5m in procurement savings and a £1m VAT rebate.”

But Labour’s opposition leader Stephen Alambritis described the budget as “death by a thousand cuts”.

He criticised plans to halve the council’s graffiti removal funds, shave £146,000 from the library budget and scrap 15 beds from the authority’s provision of elderly care facilities.

He said: “This is a cruel budget looking at every opportunity to make cuts put forward by Delloitte consultants costing hundreds of thousands of pounds, while bribing residents with a miserly 1.4 per cent reduction in council tax.”

Among other savings, the Merton Horticultural Show will no longer receive funding, the cash office in the civic centre will open for just two hours a day, and the council’s annual staff awards will only go ahead if a private sponsor will pay for the event.

But Coun Williams defended the savings. He said: “This budget has been long yet thorough and it’s interesting to note how few comments were made by scrutiny. They have put forward virtually no recommendations against any of the savings.”