More than a dozen council-owned car parks could be handed over to smaller parish and town authorities ahead of a local government shake-up.

But the smaller councils would be “absolutely mad” to take on Swale borough’s free car parks, according to one councillor.

Of the 13 lots, 10 are on Sheppey, two in Sittingbourne, and one in Faversham. Altogether, Swale council owns 38 car parks.

It does not collect a penny from the 13 free-to-park sites but they still cost money to maintain.

KentOnline asked Swale council how much the upkeep costs, but it said it could not provide an answer. We have now lodged a Freedom of Information request.

All councils in Kent are now working towards local government reform, which will see all 14 abolished and replaced by a much smaller number of larger unitary authorities which will look after all council services.

At the moment, Medway is served by a unitary authority but the rest of Kent is under a two-tier system with responsibilities spilt between boroughs or districts and Kent County Council.

With fears that fees could be introduced at Swale’s council-owned car parks when it is abolished and a new unitary authority takes over, councillors are now looking to hand over the car parks to the parishes.

Reform UK councillors Peter MacDonald, who represents Minster Cliffs, and Cllr Richard Palmer, who represents Hartlip, Newington and Upchurch, had asked for two Sheppey car parks to be offered up so they would stay in local hands.

Under their scheme, Little Oyster car park in Minster and Queenborough Library car park would be offered to Queenborough town council and Minster Parish Council.

An amendment from Faversham members Rich Lehmann (Green) and Hannah Perkin (Lib Dem) saw the idea expanded to include all free car parks across the borough.

The amendment was accepted and put forward to the council at a meeting on Wednesday, April 2.

While all councillors voted in favour of the idea, which still has to go before other council committees for it to go ahead, some had concerns.

Cllr James Hunt (Con) said councils would be “absolutely mad” to take on the car parks.

The Meads member added: “It will start costing them money, and I can see parish councils taking these car parks, taking them and putting charges in place.”

Cllr Tara Noe (Con), who represents Sheppey East and sits on Leysdown council, questioned whether this was the council’s way of off-loading the costs of running the car parks.

She said: “Were parishes approached? We haven’t heard anything.

“Is this a roundabout way of getting rid of assets and putting expenses and responsibilities onto councils?

“Trying to push things onto parish councils to save us [Swale council] money here will, at the end of the day, see residents paying for it.”

However, Cllr Tom Nundy, who represents Minster Cliffs (Swale Ind), pointed to previous battles to keep Sheppey car parks free, which have been boiling away for more than a year, as to why he supported the move.

In March last year, Swale council’s plans to introduce charges at Little Oyster, Queenborough Libary and Park Road were scrapped

by the community committee.

It was estimated the new fees would have raised £38,000 a year.

It came after strong opposition from business owners, cafe workers and tourists who told KentOnline it would be like “robbery” if charges were brought in, describing it as “penalising people who want to see the sea”.

Such was the outrage that 900 people signed two petitions set up by the Little Oyster Tea Room and Bosuns tea room in Queenborough.

Then, during Swale’s budget meeting in February, Cllr Perkin proposed rates be brought in at the car parks, pointing to the fact her residents in the Abbey ward of Faversham were paying increased rates while people on Sheppey were getting their parking for free.

But councillors voted against the Liberal Democrat leader’s plan.

Cllr Perkin reaffirmed her position at the full council meeting on Wednesday. She said: "If the aim is to keep the car parks free, that is not something we can do as it would be up to the parish councils.

“Should we keep car parks free when we can’t afford to fund homelessness, keep our toilets open and are asking the government to sort our budget out for us?

“It would be nice to see a little more discussion about how decisions benefit Swale residents more broadly.”