The future of Ramsgate Port remains uncertain as the leader of Thanet council refused to rule out selling the site.

Cllr Bob Bayford (Con) says the council are “considering all options” to try and make the port and harbour a success despite reported losses of around £20 million since 2010.

Ramsgate Action Group (RAG) claims the port’s finances are a “black hole” as “money is moved around at will”.

Member Steve Coombes said: “We are very concerned about the losses on the port, the port loses £2m a year and has an accumulate deficit of £25m.

“Every pound lost on the port is a pound cut from services.

“Every pound lost is an asset that has to be disposed of.

“Every pound lost goes into parking charges and council tax.”

However, Cllr Bayford hit back saying the port is “is one of our most valuable assets and its future is a priority for Thanet District Council”.

He added the council was discussing business opportunities with Seaborne to establish a ferry link from Ramsgate to Ostend, Belgium.

Cllr Bayford added some people “are looking for conspiracy that doesn’t exist”.

He also refuted claims from the action group they did not get an external audit when Grant Thornton has reviewed the council’s accounts and “found them to be sound”.

During the finance, budget and performance scrutiny panel on Tuesday night (October 23), Cllr Bayford was quizzed with a list of 18 questions from councillors on the statement of accounts of the port and harbour.

During his presentation, Cllr Bayford explained expenditure on accounts could be reduced by £252,000 as central support services, such as HR, salaries and procurement, are used in other areas at the council not just in Ramsgate.

Yet this did not convince Cllr Chris Wells (UKIP), who wondered how “magically a huge sum of money has vanished” from the revised accounts.

After 20 minutes of debate, including feedback from finance officer Tim Willis, a crowd from the public gallery jeered in agreement with Cllr Wells, who said the explanation was “daft”.

While Cllr Bayford said: “We have no intention of hiding anything, what is the point in that?

“Local government accounting is different to other types of accounting.

“All our figures are produced to the right standards and approved by the auditors.”

Council officers agreed to send a written explanation of the accounts to all members and host a members’ briefing following the confusion.

Suggestions were made from councillors how to revive the coastline of Ramsgate, including an idea for a marina village by Cllr Bev Martin (Con).

At the moment, a lot of the business from the coastline is the import of new cars and bulk aggregate for the building industry.

More than 26 fishing vessels and 18 commercial day angling boats are based at the harbour.

An extensive £1.2m project has refurbished two of the port’s three roll on/roll off ferry berths, to extended its operational life of these berths and accommodate new business.