Vince Maple speaking after Medway Council's budget was approved

Transcript

00:00 Look, it's somewhat ironic of course that the Conservatives and Lib Dems of Medway are

00:05 kind of looking back 14 years. It was the Conservatives and Lib Dems of the coalition

00:09 government that cut the fund originally to support councils like Medway in delivering

00:14 free swimming. We've had to deliver some really challenging decisions, decisions that I would

00:19 never want to take, but we have to. We have to take those difficult decisions now to get

00:24 us to that point of financial sustainability. I was really pleased that my colleague Councillor

00:29 Marhill was able to confirm we will be bringing forward, particularly for young people, additional

00:34 support, particularly when they're swimming with a free-paying adult. It doesn't need

00:39 to be their parent necessarily, it can be a carer, a grandparent, that's absolutely

00:44 clear. So from my perspective, would I like to have kept everything that we've had to

00:48 change tonight? Of course. There are some very valued parts of our community that will

00:53 be impacted, but I've got a job to do, this Cabinet, this Council have got a job to do,

00:59 which is deliver financial sustainability. And the tough decisions that we've taken tonight

01:03 is putting us on that journey.