Council tax will rise by just under 5% after councillors approved this year's budget.

This means for the average Band D home in the Towns, the charge will increase by £73.50 a year or £1.41 a week.

Councillors heard last night how the authority faces a budget gap of £3.155 million and a revenue shortfall of just under £9 million.

This stems from many of its income-generating services, such as leisure facilities and car parks, being hit by the lockdown.

The Tory-led council has opted to increase tax by 4.994% and take advantage of a government scheme to ring-fence 3% of this to fund adult social care.

The rise excludes the money paid to the police, some parish councils, and Kent Fire and Rescue.

During an often heated debate, council leader Cllr Alan Jarrett announced a spending programme of more than £433 million.

This equates to £1,554 for every person living in the Towns.

Some £72.94 million of the total is due to be spent on adult social care, and £45.37 million on children's services.

Finance officers identified a £3.187 million shortfall within the adult social care budget, attributing this to the pressures of the pandemic.

The overall £3.155 million budget gap is due to addressed by utilising the council’s reserves.

An additional £582,000 one-off payment was added towards the funding for children’s services.

Just over £1 million in revenue was also added from a new government grant called the Holiday Activities and Food Programme.

Cllr Jarrett announced a 1% pay rise for council workers and a one-off diversion of £450,000 from reserves to go towards bonuses.

He explained: “It’s obvious to us that many of our staff have performed above and beyond in delivering services so I think it’s time to continue to say thank you to them and put something tangible to go with it.”

A four-year freeze in car parking charges was broken, meaning on and off street parking charges will increase by 20p.

Two council-run events - the English Festival at Riverside Country Park and the Sweeps Festival in Rochester - were confirmed to be scrapped for this year, saving an estimated £118,000 which will be diverted towards the highways budget.

The meeting saw opposition leader Cllr Vince Maple (Lab) call on Cllr Jarrett to apologise for the proposed changes to length of funeral services at Medway Crematorium and the freezing of a £5 million redevelopment of Splashes leisure centre in Rainham, as agreed last July.

The changes to crematorium services fees - which were scrapped following pressure from MPs and a petition with more than 2,000 signatures - would have seen fees remain the same for a shorter service to allow time for sanitisation.

The relevant portfolio holder, Cllr Rupert Turpin (Con), repeatedly batted away criticism from Labour councillors over the fee changes, saying prices at the Blue Bell Hill site are the “cheapest in Kent”.

Cllr Maple listed the numerous shops and restaurants which have been forced to close their doors, many of which were in his Chatham Central ward.

He said: “We know the number of universal credit claimants had risen rapidly from around 10,000 in January 2020 to more than 20,000 in January 2021 and I fear those numbers will increase further.

“We know in our community, we have seen so many businesses going into administration, closing their doors for a final time.

“You would expect the council to be doing everything it can to get people back into our high streets and town centres after we come out of lockdown, instead, we see parking charges going up; an hour of parking by 20% and in some places up to 40%.”

All 16 Conservative councillors, Independent councillor Mick Pendergast and Independent Conservative Steve Iles voted in favour of the budget, while 10 Labour councillors and Independent councillor Ron Sands voted against.

Praise was heaped on the council’s public health team and the voluntary sector, including Medway Citizens' Advice for their work distributing food parcels and other essentials to families in need.

The virtual proceedings were paused during Cllr Jarrett's budget speech to pay tribute to the 713 Medway residents who have passed away from Covid-19.

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