Thanet District Council’s budget including a range of cost-cutting measures to plug a £1.8 million shortfall has been signed off by councillors.

The authority-owned Port of Ramsgate is the biggest victim of the cuts, with £630,000 (£730,000 in a full year) of funding scrapped due to the absence of a functioning ferry service.

Leader Cllr Bob Bayford (Con) said last night: “This council, under previous administrations, had been looking for a ferry operator and the port has stayed ferry-ready. That actually was at some cost.

“I said right at the beginning of this year that we wouldn’t allow that to continue beyond this year, regardless of the government or anything else that was going on.

“We either have a ferry company working under contract coming in with a service that was profitable, or we have to cease keeping the port ferry-ready.

“That’s a decision we’ve taken with some sadness really because although it’s the right thing to do financially, there are people’s livelihoods at stake and it’s always a concern when that happens.”

The council approved slashing £500,000 investment in the port, which makes multi-million pound losses every year, to keep the port open to ferries.

But the authority will continue a project to spend £450,000 to replace two berths for commercial shipping.

The budget was due to be discussed on February 7, but was delayed after the government asked for more time to organise emergency ferry provision from Ramsgate in the case of a no-deal Brexit.

The £13.8 million contract awarded to Seaborne Freight to operate such a service has now been withdrawn.

Councillors discussed the budget and approved spending £3m towards finding new office space for the council.

Also included in the budget is £250,000 of “organisational efficiencies”, a £150,000 reduction in homelessness support, and cutting council-owned facility costs by £175,000.

Cllr Ian Gregory (Con), cabinet member for financial services and estates, said: “In view of the financial pressures identified in the medium term financial strategy, a number of tough decisions have had to be taken.

“Officers have reviewed a number of services where savings or efficiencies could be realised in order to arrive at a balanced budget.”

Although he supported the proposals, Cllr Stuart Piper (Ind) called for the authority to be more “open and transparent” about how the savings will be made.

He added: “There should be a level of trust between officers and elected members, but it’s simply not good enough to keep everyone so far in the dark in this way.

“It has been suggested jobs and futures are the reason for the silence of the details, but any job losses would require months of one-to-one meetings and staff consultations.

“So maybe that’s a bit of a red herring because it would only leave a few months at the end of the year to make the whole year’s savings. Members and the people of Thanet deserve better information.”

Meanwhile, Cllr Peter Campbell (Lab) claimed the budget was a result of the “savage” funding cuts from central government.

Councillors also agreed to raise the Thanet District Council portion of council tax by 2.98%, representing an increase of £6.75 for Band D properties.