Stirling Council has been unable to agree a new council tax rate

Corrie McChord said Tory members walked out of a meeting to set the new rate but he hoped the matter could be resolved next week.

Tory councillor Paul Nelson said the Labour administration's proposed 4.5% increase was too high, adding that rates should not rise at all.

External commissioners could set the tax figure if no agreement is reached.

Mr McChord said the council did not have a majority to carry changes to the council tax and that a meeting has been called for 23 February to set the rate.

A Labour councillor died three weeks ago and the initial meeting to set the council tax rate would not be quorate.

We're angry about the undemocratic way it was handled Corrie McChord Stirling Council leader Scotland's council tax bills

Mr McChord said he was angry with the "undemocratic way" the Tories had acted and believed their actions amounted to "a stunt".

"They were planning to disrupt the meeting and we're angry about the undemocratic way it was handled," he said.

"We have arranged a meeting for next Thursday (23 February) and I hope we manage to get the issue resolved, but all we can do is call a meeting. I don't know if the Tories will attend."

'Stand-off'

Mr McChord said the impasse had cost the council about �20,000 since last Friday and he was concerned council tax collection would suffer if it was not resolved soon.

"We want to resolve this within Stirling Council, but we can only call the meeting and see what happens," he said.

"I'll be taking political advice so this doesn't happen again. There's theatre going on here and this is normally a mature council.

"We want to get on with the Tories and get this resolved."

Mr Nelson said there was "a bit of a stand-off" with the Labour administration over the new rate.

'Reduce workforce'

"We weren't prepared to endorse a 4.5% rise in council tax rates and would like to get it resolved as quickly as possible for the people of Stirling," he said.

"We propose a zero per cent increase in rates, the same as Glasgow, and would reduce the 425-strong workforce in the corporate services department."

Mr Nelson said Finance Minister Tom McCabe had challenged councils to consider a radical alternative to high tax rate increases, which was what Tory councillors were proposing to the Labour administration.

The councillor added: "It would be interesting to see if commissioners would agree with Mr McCabe that councils should set council rates below 2.5%."

The majority of Scotland's local authorities defied a warning to keep increases down to that level.