Margate's Turner Contemporary gallery

Exclusive by political editor Paul Francis

Kent County Council is to slash funding for the Turner Contemporary gallery, sports development and footpath maintenance as part of a £2.5m package of savings, it has emerged.

There will be less money to support music in schools, while academy schools will have to pay for courses and advice from the council, which had been free.

The jobs of community wardens could be left unfilled under plans to recruit to vacant posts just once a year.

The county council set out its major budget plans last month, detailing how it intended to save £60m from key services and freeze council tax and inviting the public to give its verdict.

But missing from the public consultation was a list of other cuts under £300,000 that the ruling Conservative administration will make.

Those proposals have now been disclosed to the Kent Messenger Group.

They include a cut in the annual grant to the Turner Contemporary of £100,000, to £1m; £225,000 less for keeping public footpaths clear and a £200,000 reduction in the budget for sports development.

In addition, academy schools will be charged for support and courses run by the authority which they have previously not had to pay for. That will raise nearly £400,000.

A recruitment freeze on community wardens will save KCC £280,000, while Kent Music faces a £200,000 cut in its budget to support school music.

KCC said it recognised that some of the cuts would not be popular but were necessary because of its focus on protecting services for the vulnerable when government grants were being pared back.

Cllr John Simmonds (Con), the council's cabinet member for finance, said: "The question is that if we don't cut here, what other alternatives are there? Within the context of the other £60m savings, it is relatively small beer. We have examined every service we provide and are trying to protect our core services."

He acknowledged some of the proposals would have a direct impact on people and were likely to involve job cuts. "There will be strong feelings about some of these."

• The county council's public consultation on its budget for 2013-14 ends on November 1. For more detailsclick here.