Council tax is going up in Gravesham after councillors voted in favour of an increase by a small majority.

At a full council meeting last night members of Gravesham council voted to increase the tax by 2.65%, £4.95 per year for a band D property, while 18 voted against.

Labour leader John Burden tried to introduce an amendment that would have seen the two hours of free parking on a Saturday removed and the money saved used to keep public toilets open, but this was overturned, also by 23 to 18.

Deputy council leader Cllr David Turner presented the proposed budget as leader Cllr John Cubitt, who sat at the back of the chamber for the beginning of the meeting, has been ill.

The council had previously said if the council tax was frozen at its current rate the authority would have £1.64 million less than it needed for the next financial year.

Cllr Turner admitted: “Nobody likes an increase in council tax and asking our residents to dig deeper into their pockets and pay more.”

But he said it was necessary to raise and save money in order to prevent services being cut and described £4.95 a year as a “modest” increase.

Proposing the Labour group amendment, Cllr Burden accused the Tories of having “aspirational savings” as opposed to actual plans and said the budget had “gaps” in it.

He said the Tories have made promises they haven’t kept, such as to keep public toilets open, create a museum for the town and provide free parking all day on a Saturday, and questioned how they would achieve the promised savings laid out in the budget.

Cllr Steve Thompson added: “There’s nothing wrong with having aspirations but don’t put it in your budget until you’ve worked it out.”

Cllr Cubitt received a round of applause as he defended the budget, saying the council had already generated £1 million and would deliver on its promises, including to develop Northfleet.

Councillors then spent almost an hour talking about toilets.

Last month we announced that loos in Clive Road, convenient for commuters heading out of Gravesend railway station, and Parrock Street will close at a combined saving of almost £40,000, along with others out of town.

Shops and pubs could be relied upon to let members of the public use their toilets, possibly in exchange for money from the council towards cleaning supplies, as happens in other towns including Maidstone.

But Cllr Thompson, an ex-pub landlord, said publicans are not allowed to let drunk people into pubs so an intoxicated person would be breaking the law by entering a public house to use the loo.

Cllr Lyn Milner said she had spoken to a business owner who threatened to lock his toilet and charge for use rather than take part in the scheme.

Cllr Lee Croxton called the proposed community toilet scheme “bonkers” and Cllr John Caller said people would shop at Bluewater rather than Gravesend if they could not use the toilet while shopping.

But Cllr Turner hit back at his opponents saying Labour had not come up with any better suggestions - an accusation that was met with enthusiastic waving of pieces of paper detailing the proposed amendment.

He then admitted “we have broken some promises” but blamed that on central government cuts, likening the situation to a parent who promises to take their children on holiday then gets made redundant.