GREEN Party group leader Cllr Dave Mansell has warned more ‘cuts and savings’ will need to be found by Somerset Council even if it took advantage of being allowed to raise council tax bills by half as much again as a national cap.

The Government is allowing Somerset to increase council tax this year by up to 7.5 per cent instead of the five per cent to which other authorities are restricted.

The council said it was necessary to help bridge a £66 million budget black hole which has been forcing it toward bankruptcy.

But Cllr Mansell, who lives in Wiveliscombe, said: “This will not be enough to close the council’s budget gap for 2025-26 or for future years, so more cuts and savings will be needed.

“The crisis has arisen from years of under-funding and escalating costs for social care.

“Somerset is a large rural county with a large elderly population, which has not received its fair share of funding and, mistakenly, froze council tax between 2010-16.

“The whole council has been restructured over the last year, with hundreds of officers leaving or taking voluntary redundancy.

“The process will be finalised on Wednesday (February 12), when decisions will be taken on removing 555 posts, including through compulsory redundancies.”

Cllr Mansell said the 2025-26 budget would then go to a meeting on February 26, which would need to include further capitalisation, where the Government gives special permission for assets to be sold and the money used for day to day spending.

However, he said capitalisation ‘does not solve the problem and cannot continue year after year’, while the council’s reserves had already been taken down to a minimum level.

Cllr Mansell said: “Work will have to continue on finding further cuts and savings.”

Somerset declared a financial emergency in November, 2023, and has faced bankruptcy ever since.