Somerset Tax Set : “Another Year Older and Deeper in Debt”

Somerset Council has been struggling since birth. Created as a Unitary Authority in 2023 on the ruins of the abolished districts and with a ‘social care’ time bomb in it’s basement left over from it’s days of Tory control the new Lib Dem authority has been firefighting ever since. The battle this year is to stave off the ‘commissioners’. That’s the faceless bureaucrats who the Government would send in to run the county if they failed to set a balanced budget and were forced to declare what is known as a ‘section 114’. And the Commisioners would be brutal. Their sole aim would be to make cuts, sack people and sell off enough stuff until the books were balanced. And they’d be paid a ridiculous daily rate to do this and the council tax would go up even more. So the Ruling Lib Dems have tried to avoid that and went to Government to ask for help. The help given was the permission to raise Somerset’s council tax above the statutory 5% limit and also a ‘capitalisation direction’ which allows them to sell off assets and use the money to fund running costs. By these means plus losing 555 workers (11% of their total) they have managed to present a balanced budget. At the council meeting of 5^th March 2025, for 6 hours councillors argued about what to do and when they eventually put it to the vote it was carried  59-34 with 2 abstentions.

Towns and parishes around Somerset watched carefully to see what the outcome would be. Bridgwater Town Council Leader Brian Smedley (Labour Bridgwater South) was at the meeting and summed up what happened and the consequences.“The Lib Dems have chosen to try to set a balanced budget to stop the commissioners coming in and doing it for them. They describe the choice as heartbreaking and it is. But at the end of the day they are doing the Commisioners job for them. They are right that the system they are trying to work with is not fit for purpose. The Labour government has given more money this year but more and more councils are in this position. It’s because the system isn’t able to cope and has to change. I believe the Government will change it but they need to do that quickly. In Bridgwater and at other town councils we have raised our precepts in order to save jobs, assets and services. We asked for devolution of assets to us and we offered to take on jobs and services. For instance this included car parks which would give us an income stream plus control over whether car parks are free, open and at what price. We’ve also called for the pointless LCNs to be replaced with Town based Hubs. The Libdems haven’t been genuine in their devolution package and instead they’re sacking good workers when they should be saving them by devolving powers. We always said Somerset was too big as a Unitary council and its only hope now is to devolve power to the local councils.”

Tories Push the Boundaries of Hypocrisy

The Conservative Party are the main opposition on Somerset Council and its them that created the mess both in Government and at County. Their attempts at the budget meeting to look sweetness and light while trying to blame the Liberals was jaw droppingly hypocritical.

Tory after Tory stood up to try to point fingers away from themselves. Cllr Rodrigues (Bridgwater East) said “The reserves are depleted..where will the money for transformation come from!?” (The Tories had depleted them). Cllr Healey (Huntspill)  suggested “putting charges on recycling centres” (only to be told his own government had made that illegal)  Cllr Dingwall (Bridgwater East) said the council was “leaderless” (Cllr Revans, the ‘leader’ waved and pointed out he was there and that he’d had no complaints from the various peer reviews) Not content to stop digging, Cllr Dingwall continued and described Somerset as “Squat like a monstrous toad across the somerset economy.” (this is the economy devastated by 14 years of Tory government and the consequent cost of living crisis)

Lib Dems get ‘a bit angry’

Some Lib Dems gave back as good as they got with Cllr Henley (Blackdown) saying “This utter denial by the Conservatives is shocking. They sit here asking questions and don’t even mention their own 6 year council tax freeze. Pickles launched this in 2010 and each year councils dropped off the scheme until just Tory somerset stuck to it. For 6 years” 10s of millions of pounds lost.And now the Conservatives  are abrogating their own responsibility by not even making alternative budget props and just seem silly and bizarre. No ideas. No responsibility.  Every tory plan could be written on back of a postage stamp and a 2^nd class one at that!

Lib Dem Cllr Carswell (Street) backed him up by offering “to clean the windows of every councillor here if just one of them provided an alternative budget” Sadly the only councillor to respond was independent Cllr Barr (Wellington) who seemed to think Carswell was taking his job and said “Actually, I’m the best window cleaner in Somerset! “ and then made a proposal that “Castle Green in Taunton be dug up and made back into a car park to bring in a million pound a year.” It’s not known if cllr Carswell went round to clean his windows.

Labour Leader Speaks Out

Labour County Leader Leigh Redman (Bridgwater North & Central). Also spoke against the budget in particular critising the ruling administration for not bringing to members a ‘CIPFA’ report that was likely to recomend even more cuts  “I was hoping that this decision would see an end to uncertainty that our staff have suffered over the past months during change and restructure. But the uncertainty goes on.This council has worked hard to self implement, civil servants guidance, doing to ourself, what commissioners may do if they were here.But we still find ourselves with a massive deficit this year and next.  .I ask again what does the report say? It is likely to make recommendations for further cuts, we are already at the bone, we have already made clear that we are at our limit for the service we provide to residents.How can council support a balanced budget, when there is already in existence, a report that is likely to recommend further changes to council to enable a balanced budget next year, that members have not had sight of? For many reasons I will be unable to support the proposed budget, but my main concern is about a report that we all should have seen, so that we can weigh up its potential impact, that would allow all members to have all the information available to make an informed decision on this matter.”

All Out for a Duck

Cllr Smedley summed up the meeting “There are 3 main reasons this council is in a mess. First the Con Dem coalition decision to impose austerity and massively cut funding to local government. Second the Conservatives when they ran county who took a decision to bring in a 6 year council tax freeze. Whilst that might have looked good to their supporters it simply meant the reserves were depleted and third- again the Tories, the decision to create a Unitary council which was simply not sustainable. For the Tories to now try to blame anyone but themselves is ..well…what the Tories do. Try not to believe them.”