Cuts to free swimming and other leisure offerings will go ahead after Medway Council passed its budget at last night’s (February 29) full council meeting.

The first-ever Labour and Co-operative Group budget will see free swimming for U16s and over-60s cut, parking charges rise, and the closure of the Rochester Visitor Centre.

The English Festival and the summer Dickens Festival will also not go ahead this year.

Council leader Vince Maple said he was proud to have passed a budget which made difficult decisions but ensured a “roadmap to financial sustainability.”

The Conservative opposition criticised the move to end free swimming, putting forward an amendment to reinstate it, as well as the proposal’s reliance on exceptional financial support from central government.

The exceptional support from the department for levelling up, housing, and communities allows Medway Council to borrow £14.7 million to cover running costs for the financial year and institute long-term efficiency saving schemes.

The Labour Group said this power would enable them to put the authority on a better financial path and avoid effective bankruptcy - but critics claimed it was just kicking the can down the road.

Cllr Maple said: “Seeking exceptional financial support was necessary to protect the services many people in Medway need and value.

“We are now setting out our Strategic Improvement Plan that will map our journey to greater long-term financial sustainability in Medway, and this will be a fully transparent process keeping Medway residents involved and informed in the coming years, as this affects us all."

However, Tory leader Adrian Gulvin said it was only piling up debt for the future.

He said: “This budget is entirely predicated on Medway Council being bailed out by the Conservative government.

“The problem is, next year we’ll need to borrow a further £17 million, and £10 million the year after that.

“Piling up debt for future generations is not the answer to local government funding.”

Several opposition councillors criticised the proposed borrowing but Labour councillors hit back saying the Tories had put forward no alternative.

The Medway Lib Dems put in a petition earlier this week calling for the council to reconsider its scrapping of free swimming for U16s.

Following this, the Tory group submitted an amendment to the budget which sought to reinstate the scheme for both under 16s and over-60s.

However, Labour members called the move hypocritical since the national free swimming scheme was cut by the coalition government in 2010

Deputy leader Teresa Murray (Lab) said the council’s need to cut the local scheme was due to the Conservative government’s policy of austerity, supported by “their Liberal Democrat lap dogs”.

The amendment was voted down by the Labour majority and the administration’s budget was passed unchanged.

After the meeting, Cllr Maple said the cuts were not what he would like to do, but are a necessary step to ensure financial security for the authority.

He said: “We’ve had to deliver some really challenging decisions, decisions that I would never want to take but we have to.

“Would I have liked to have kept everything we’ve changed tonight? Of course, but this council has a job to do, which is to deliver financial sustainability.”