A swimming club that dates back more than 140 years could be forced to close after the introduction of evening parking fees.

Head coach of Sheerness Swimming Club, Mark Sheather, says a decision to scrap free parking after 6pm puts their future in doubt.

New charges brought in by Swale council from April shocked many businesses and residents when the authority chose to extend the end of the payment period from 6pm to midnight.

Now, the club, based at at Sheerness Swimming Pool, off the Broadway, are seeing parents and volunteers having to fork out at least £10.40 a week compared to being charged nothing previously.

Mr Sheather explained: “The removal of free parking has definitely affected the club and further stretched our members’ costs, as parking in and around Sheerness is very difficult at the best of times.

“The introduction of the parking fees essentially costs our parents and volunteers around £15 a week, or £60 a month, which is actually double the fees our club charge our members a month and in some cases treble the fees.

“In today’s current climate with the cost-of-living rising at alarming rates, leisure and hobbies are often the first things to be affected.

“Our council should be helping run clubs like ours so they can survive - not making it difficult.

“This is just another hurdle put in the way which could ultimately lead to our club having to cease operation – something which would be a tragedy for our Island given the club is more than 140 years old.

“All our teachers are volunteers and many of them no longer have children swimming at the club, yet they are still prepared to give up their own time to teach children in the community to swim.

“Asking those volunteers to find around £60 a month to give up their time will ultimately lead to them stopping volunteering.

“We have asked for parking permits, just for our volunteers, but apparently that is also not an option.

“We don’t really know what else we can do.”

The club, which has 150 members on its books and provides swimming lessons for children as young as four, operates from 7pm-9pm on a Tuesday, 7.30pm-9.30pm on a Thursday and 4pm-6pm on a Sunday.

Sheerness Town Team has called on Swale council to reverse the decision.

Town team vice chairman John Nurden said: "It might be something cities like Canterbury can get away with because of their thriving night-time economies but it is not something which helps the towns of Sittingbourne, Faversham or Sheerness.

"It is certainly having a devastating effect on the Isle of Sheppey which is suffering from the brutal cost of living increases.

"We implore councillors to look again at this barmy policy and to reverse it as soon as possible."

Kent County Council (KCC) representative for Sheppey, Cllr Mike Whiting (Con), said: “Sheerness Swimming Club and Beachfields do a great job teaching and coaching our young people.

“However, one of the big issues for them is the new evening car parking charges imposed by Swale council, which are hitting parents and volunteers.

“Yet there seems no appetite from the administration to change their minds on this - which is a real shame.”

From April, parking charges in council-owned car parks increased by 8% at the same time free parking hours were reduced.

The fees rose from 60p to 65p for 30 minutes; by 10p from £1.20 to £1.30 for an hour; from £2.40 to £2.60 for two hours and from £4.80 to £5.20 for up to four hours.

In March, 38-year-old Amed Ali, said the decision would spell “bad news” for Sheerness and his business Fishermans Catch in Broadway.

A Swale council spokesman said: “We understand the concerns raised but, unfortunately, we are not immune to rising prices which have affected the costs of providing our services for residents.

“To continue providing essential services, councillors had to make tough decisions on cutting some functions and increasing prices as we are unable to put up our share of the council tax at the same rate as our rocketing costs.

“We are planning to review our parking policy and will, of course, be looking at issues such as evening parking charges and their impact.”