Campaigners opposed to the loss of children’s services at two family centres in Sheerness and Thanet have won their latest battle to retain them after a Tory backbench revolt.
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00:00It's where families come for advice and support when bringing up their children. Users say
00:05it's a lifeline.
00:06But two of these centres in Margate and Sheerness are set to have their Family Hub services
00:11decommissioned at the end of March from Kent County Council.
00:15The authority says the loss of seashells and millmead could take nearly half a million
00:19pounds off its budget, and with services remaining in-house nearby at other centres.
00:24That decision by the councillor in charge has now been stalled, but this has now been
00:29questioned at scrutiny this week, with new data coming to light.
00:33The arguments that were put forward were so good and so clear that at the end of the day
00:37all the members of the committee simply had to vote to take it to the full council. So
00:42we've won this little battle, there's one more battle to take when we take it to full
00:47council.
00:48I'm absolutely delighted. It shows very categorically that the committee and actually the full council
00:54and the decision maker didn't have all the information that they needed. Unanimous,
00:59absolutely unanimous.
01:00A consultation took place last year to gather views of users at the services, and alongside
01:05that campaign groups amassed more than 2,000 signatures. So now the final decision will
01:10be in the hands of the full council in the coming weeks. It's thought this vote will
01:15be unwhipped.
01:17It would be unusual if they reversed the decisions of three meetings. So I'm very confident,
01:25but time will tell. But I doubt whether we're going to get there.
01:30Despite a unanimous vote, the lead councillor still backs her decision.
01:34At the moment I will stand by that decision, however there is clearly a process within
01:39council which allows scrutiny and members to ask me to reconsider.
01:45I'm not going to speculate on what full council may do. We'll provide the evidence, I'll provide
01:49the explanations and we'll see what the outcome is.
01:54A date still needs to be set for this extraordinary full council, although some members are speculating
02:00that a U-turn could happen before this.
02:02Gabriel Morris at County Hall.