At Capstone Country Park, near Chatham, families were contemplating the idea of paying for car parking – one of the options Medway Council is considering as it tries to get its finances straight.
Jayne Howard said: “They’ve wasted money all over the place, on frivolous things or things that don’t need doing, or middle management people that don’t need to be there and so there’s not enough left in the pot for the things that do need doing. And the answer is always to put it on the people on the bottom of the chain, charge us more for everything.”
Her friend, Rebecca Randall, was sympathetic to the council’s plight but was still concerned that families would end up paying the price for pressure on public finances.
“With the tiniest budget that they already have, I think it’s quite extreme to ask them to do everything,” she said. “But I don’t think it should be brought back down to the people.”
The Local Government Information Unit said the current situation would leave residents paying more for less, and called for reform of the way councils are funded in order to “save” the services…
