A protests was staged in Medway against a council's plans to close its Sure Start children's centres.

A public consultation ended last week after the council announced plans to replace its 19 centres with four super hubs.

The protest comes after more than 900 people took part in a consultation to decide the future of the centres.

Councillors voted to launch a public consultation earlier this year on what should happen to the centres, after a government funding cut meant the local authority will have £1.6 million less to spend on early years services.

During the six-week consultation period, the council held 48 events within the community to hear people’s views and 902 responded: this includes 641 online responses, 225 paper forms and 36 letters and emails.

The council’s preferred option is to close all 19 centres and create four larger ‘super hubs’ with some satellite centres. Another plan is to shut them altogether.

If approved, these hubs would serve Gillingham and Twydall, Luton and Rainham, Stood Peninsula/Rochester West, and Rochester East/Chatham/Walderslade.

The proposals have sparked outrage among Medway mums who arranged several protests across the Towns.

Mother and campaigner Anna Morell said: “It’s critical that we save our Sure Start centres.

“When parents are exhausted because they have babies, they need to be able to go these services in their neighbourhoods.

"They do not have the time, energy, or money to go off to a super hub.

“Super hubs will not provide the diversity of services nor the strong sense of community that these present centres foster when they are in neighbourhoods.”

Medway Council’s head of children’s services, Cllr Andrew Mackness, said: “I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to come along to one of the sessions to find out more, and also to those who submitted feedback.

“We’re now working hard to go through and consider what we’ve heard through the consultation process, and to pull all the comments and ideas together which will help to refresh our proposals going forward.”

Councillors are due to discuss the final plans later this year.

Cllr Mackness said: “There are tough decisions to be made, and one thing is for sure – we cannot stand still and do nothing at all.

“Medway’s children and families are at the heart of everything we do and therefore their best interests will be at the centre of our decisions based on the consultation outcome.

“The feedback we have received is going to help us re-model our early help and children centre services in the best way possible.”