Council chiefs are furious at a settlement that will see Medway miss out on millions of pounds of funding.

In the 2009/10 Local Government Settlement, which outlines how local authorities will be funded, Medway Council is set to lose almost £5 million.

The money is to be redistributed as part of a mechanism called floor damping, in which money is taken from councils who are deemed to need it less and passed on to more deprived authorities.

But Medway Council chiefs say the Towns desperately need the millions of pounds of cash.

The deputy leader and portfolio holder for finance, Cllr Alan Jarrett, said: “The government likes to give with one hand and take with the other and this year they are taking nearly £5m from us.

“This bureaucratic and nonsensical floor damping mechanism is taking the funds the council requires to serve the people of Medway and giving it to others, which means some councils are getting more than they need. This is unfair and is robbing the residents of Medway of the services they deserve.”

But junior government minister Paul Clark, MP for Gillingham and Rainham, said Medway was adequately funded.

He said: “In the last 10 years all local authorities have seen real-term increases. The substantial funding Medway will receive is in addition to the money the area has been given for improvements such as the rail link, and this is despite the global economic situation.”