The Chancellor will receive a letter from the council asking for greater financial support in the Autumn Statement next month to plug £17 million budget gap.

At last week’s full council meeting, leader Cllr Vince Maple (Lab) submitted a motion to write to Jeremy Hunt outlining the financial pressures the authority faces and ask for money to prevent “the need to cut jobs and services in the short, medium and long term”.

This was due to Medway Council’s significant projected overspend gap that threatens throwing the council into a Section 114 order and bankruptcy.

It passed with Labour group support and Conservative group opposition. Cllr Chris Spalding voted for the motion, while fellow independent councillors, George Crozer, Ron Sands, and Michael Pearce abstained.

If the call for increased funds goes unheeded, the authority will have to find huge savings elsewhere, cutting back services to the statutory minimum and selling off assets.

Cllr Maple said: “As a new administration we’ve seen pretty early on, in less than 150 days, the financial circumstances this council is in.

“It is particularly, but not exclusively, upper-tier authorities, those who have got the responsibility for highways and care and education, that are struggling with the financial pressures.

“The funding gap that we find across local government is something which is not sustainable.

“That means councils like Medway will be left with almost impossible choices. Do we sell off buildings? Probably, but that will only go so far.

“Ultimately this comes down to where the funding comes from central government. We should be writing to the Chancellor ahead of the Autumn Statement to make sure we put the case for the pressures that Medway has as we fight for the resources that our community and residents deserve.”

Tory leader Cllr Adrian Gulvin said previous administrations had lobbied the government for more funding, however, the Conservative group could not support the motion as worded.

He said: “For a long, long time, we’ve put pressure on the government to provide extra funding for Medway. Sometimes we’ve been successful, sometimes we’ve not.

“I know for a fact that my colleagues who went to the annual party conference lobbied hard with members of the government.

“Unfortunately, we can’t support this motion with its current wording, you probably wouldn’t have expected us to.”

The Tory group submitted an amendment that reworded the motion to, among other things, thank the Chancellor for “the government’s ongoing record capital investment into Medway” and added the council believes “His Majesty’s Government and the Prime Minister are taking long-term decisions for a brighter future for Medway”.

However, Labour councillors rejected the motion, with Cllr Naushabah Khan saying the opposition were living in “cloud cuckoo land” if they thought Labour members would support a motion thanking the Chancellor.

She moved for the amendment to be taken to a vote where it was defeated, with Conservatives voting for and independents and Labour against.

They then voted on the motion as originally worded where it passed with support from all Labour members and Cllr Spalding, opposition from Conservative members, and abstentions from the remaining independents.