DISTRICT councillors have come out fighting in their battle to remain solvent and rubbished widespread reports of the authority's imminent demise.

Councillors from across the political divide stood shoulder to shoulder at a special meeting on Wednesday to stress the council was not "dead in the water" despite claims to the contrary.

West Somerset Council leader Cllr Tim Taylor said the authority had enough money to continue providing services until at least 2015 and was trying to ensure its longer-term future.

He said the council would not be pressurised or bullied into making rushed decisions "others want us to make" but would instead take its time to find a solution that was right for council staff and local residents.

And in what could be a bitter blow to Sedgemoor District Council, councillors opted to ask Taunton Deane Borough Council to try and find a long-term solution to the council's financial problems.

It had been widely expected that the council would ask Sedgemoor to draw up a business case to investigate the possibility of West Somerset becoming a commissioning authority - buying in services from neighbouring councils and organisations while retaining a fully-elected quota of councillors to represent local residents.

But with Sedgemoor already telling Government ministers it will not support a commissioning model and West Somerset members distrustful of Sedgemoor's motives with the Hinkley C development looming on the horizon, councillors opted to side with Taunton Deane.

Councillors also voted to ask Taunton Deane to investigate the possibility of West Somerset becoming a collaborative authority, sharing management and services with another authority, or becoming a co-operative or mutual organisation, a suggestion put forward by Cllr Peter Murphy.

Cllr Murphy said the Government had come up with the idea of local authorities becoming mutuals or co-operatives, largely owned by either staff or the local community, but no-one seemed to be aware of it.

"The situation Cllr Taylor has been put under recently has been intolerable.

"The future of 80 staff is in our hands and this is an option I believe has not been considered," Cllr Murphy said.

Both becoming a collaborative or a commissioning authority would incur huge job losses, with only a handful of staff likely to be based in West Somerset.

But until a business case is drafted by Taunton Deane, there are numerous question marks over whether such a scheme would work in reality.

The idea of holding a referendum to increase Council Tax bills above Government capping limits was also not ruled out by councillors to ensure statutory services could continue to be provided in the district in the future.

Cllr Taylor said he had been given personal reassurances from both Taunton Deane Borough Council's leader Cllr John Williams and council chief executive Penny James that the authority was able and willing to work with West Somerset to try and find a solution to its problems.

He said Taunton Deane was happy not to rush any decisions unlike "others" who had put "considerable pressure on us to move quickly".

"We should not be dictated to by people putting pressure on us to do what they want us to do.

"I will always do what I believe is right for the people of West Somerset," Cllr Taylor said.

Although Cllr Taylor did not elaborate, sources close to the authority have told the Free Press Sedgemoor is pushing for a full takeover of West Somerset, having told Government ministers all other options would not stack up financially.

Taunton Deane, however, is understood to be keen to share more services with West Somerset in bid to cut its own costs.

Government minister Brandon Lewis, who met council leaders in West Somerset on Monday, is also believed to have made it clear he expects Somerset's local councils to work together to solve West Somerset's problems - there would be no extra Government money available.

Cllr Taylor said the Government and neighbouring councils had also opposed West Somerset's plans to hold a referendum to try and increase the authority's share of Council Tax bills.

But Cllr Taylor said: "We are a sovereign council. We will make these decisions.

"We will have difficult decisions to make in the New Year but we do not have to rush this in quite the way that was being pushed on us."

As has been widely reported, West Somerset Council is teetering on a financial precipice after the publication of a damning Local Government Association report which concluded that after 2015 the authority would no longer be financially viable.

On Wednesday, councillors laid the blame for their predicament firmly at the door of central Government.

Cllr Taylor said the authority had taken huge steps to turn around its performance over the last five years and its current problems were purely financial, not operational.

He said while costs were increasing each year, the Government had cut grant funding while also making no allowance for the additional costs incurred by delivering services in a rural area.

He said staff had already been reduced from 140 in 2006 to just over 80 in 2012 and said the council was delivering services at minimal cost.

Recent Government funding cuts of some £1.2 million in real terms had further exacerbated the situation, coupled with Westminster's insistence that Council Tax bills should be frozen or any increases capped at two per cent.

"I have made this point to the Government that we are underfunded, but the Government response is that nothing can be

done about that at this stage," Cllr Taylor said.

Opposition leader Cllr Ian Melhuish said it was clear pressure from "on high" was being put on the ruling Conservative councillors and said it was obvious the Government was trying to save itself from embarrassment.

By the council's own figures, although savings could help it limp along over the next two years, its long term future remains bleak, with an estimated budget deficit of £1.28 million by 2016.

Large cuts in Government grants, increased service delivery costs and a low Council Tax base have all been blamed.

Cllr Tony Knight said in the 40 years he had been a councillor he had never experienced the level of pressure that was currently being put on the authority by outside forces.

"The general public is being given the impression we are going to sink without a trace.

"But the public also knew we were on a path to solving our problems through the sharing of services and a referendum," he said.

Cllr Eddie May added: "We need to make it clear we are not dead in the water, which is the message that has gone out from some of the media and our own local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger."

After the meeting, Cllr Taylor said he was looking forward to working with Taunton Deane to find ways of "working within the local government family to produce cost-effective and affordable services for the people of West Somerset, whilst still maintaining a democratically elected West Somerset Council".

Taunton Deane Borough Council leader Cllr John Williams, said: "As part of the broader local government family we will continue to support West Somerset together with our partners in the Strategic Alliance – ourselves, Sedgemoor District Council, Somerset County Council and Exmoor National Park Authority."