The city's lifeguard services could be cut to save money under plans being discussed later today.

In a budget meeting last month, councillors agreed to cut the budget for lifeguards by £100,000, but backed a Labour amendment to allocate £60,000 on a one-off basis towards maintaining the service, as well as other tourism facilities.

Lifeguard resources could be reduced to focus on three main areas under proposals being voted on today; West Street and the Seafront Office, the area around the Palace Pier, and the King Alfred section of the beach.

Additional lifeguard stations would be stationed in Saltdean, around the West Pier and near Hove Lawns during the school summer holidays.

The Labour group on Brighton and Hove City Council have claimed that the Green administration is attempting to “double down on seeingly ideological cuts to lifeguards”, despite Labour councillors claiming to have secured additional funds to save the service.

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Councillor Amanda Evans, the party’s spokeswoman for tourism, claimed that the Greens have entered into a “desperate attempt to play politics with the lives of swimmers”.

She said: “The report the Greens are bringing to committee this afternoon represents either cock-up or conspiracy and I’m not sure what’s worse.

“We hope it’s not cock-up - that officers couldn’t be bothered to produce a new report that utilised the funds we secured for them and the Greens didn’t give them a proper steer.

“But the conspiracy angle is worrying too - that the Greens are so keen to wipe out any political capital we could gain before the local elections, that they are forcing through cuts to lifeguards to invalidate our claims that we’ve been able to save them.

“Either way, this is the behaviour of an administration running on fumes, out of ideas, out of time, and playing politics with the lives of people swimming in our seas.”

Labour are proposing to scrap the planned cuts by using additional funding allocated at the budget meeting to maintain the city’s existing lifeguard coverage this year.

The Green Party have been approached for comment.