A public consultation on whether to introduce new parish councils in Swale has been labelled an embarrassing flop.

The accusation by Labour councillors follows a community governance review which cost £27,000 to set up.

Among its aims was to look at installing new parish councils or merging unparished areas with existing authorities.

A public consultation on the Swale council-led issue ended on October 1, and at that time, figures showed of more than 20,000 people canvassed for an opinion in affected areas of Sittingbourne and Sheppey, only 166 replied.

In terms of the cash it cost to fund the project, it equates to £162 per response.

Labour’s Cllr Ghlin Whelan, representative for Chalkwell ward, said: “It’s a disgrace.

“People do not hanker after a new level of local government and they are very unwilling to pay increased council tax for councils with very minimal authority. This has turned out to be an embarrassing flop.”

However, council leader Cllr Andrew Bowles (Con) called the governance review a “flagship priority” for the authority, which he said had full council support.

He said responses were still being counted and a decision would be made later this month.

The review affected a number of unparished areas in Sittingbourne and Sheppey. Of the responses recorded so far, 12 people from Murston who replied were against changes. In Milton Regis, 21 replied with two people in favour of a parish administration being installed. And in Sittingbourne wards, which might have fostered a town council, 23 responded with 17 saying “no”.

Forty three people made their feelings known in Halfway, Sheppey with 34 in favour of taking on board a new parish council.

Labour said the public’s reaction didn’t justify taking the referendum to a second stage.

Cllr Bowles denied a waste of money, saying: “The general public should be buoyed by the council’s continued positivity towards localism. The council works especially hard to ensure the public gets value for money.”

When asked to validate a near £30,000 spend with local authorities being asked to cut costs, Cllr Bowles, said: “We are striving to ensure there is no loss to any of our services.”