WEST Somerset Council's cabinet has agreed not to make severe cuts in its remaining services, despite potentially having to find more than £1.12 million in savings in the coming years.

On Wednesday, members of the council's cabinet agreed to make £150,000 of savings in 2012/13 and a further £50,000 in 2013/14.

However, the council will need to find further savings or generate extra income of more than £1.12 million per year by 2016/17 if it is to remain financially viable.

That is equivalent to almost a quarter of its current annual budget of £4.9m.

Cllr Kate Kravis, the council's lead member for finance, said the authority was now working with a "critical minimum number of staff" and further redundancies were out of the question.

She said numerous efficiency savings had already been made and the authority was trying to "hang on" until additional income was likely to be generated by the expected advent of Hinkley C.

She said councillors had listened to the public, local councils and business leaders about which services they valued the most.

As a result, plans to abolish business rate relief for shops, industries, sports clubs and charitable groups would be scrapped, meaning qualifying premises would still receive support from the council by not having to pay full business rates.

Councillors were told the cost of providing non-statutory services was subsidised by the net income of about £390,000 from the council's car parks, which reduced running costs from over £742,000 to just over £353,000.

Even if the authority cut all its discretionary services, it would still not be able to save enough money to remain viable - unless additional income was generated in the coming years, most probably through increases in Council Tax.

It is also hoped the Government will allow the district to retain some of the business rates paid by potential Hinkley C developer EDF Energy, which could run into many hundreds of thousands of pounds.