DESPITE potentially having to find more than £1.12 million in savings to balance its books in the coming years, West Somerset Council looks set to stave off the most severe cuts to its remaining services.

Next Wednesday, members of the council's cabinet will be asked to consider a budget report outlining savings of £150,000 in 2012/13 and £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: "We have worked hard on efficiencies in recent years.

"We are delivering all the services expected of a district council at the lowest possible costs.

"We have struggled to retain extra services, which we know are valued by the community even though we have fewer than 84 full-time equivalent staff to deliver everything, which is extraordinary in itself."

Examples of services that communities have said they value include public conveniences, tending parks and beach cleaning, CCTV and community safety initiatives, and continuing the council's economic regeneration and tourism work.

Cllr Kravis said: "A 'quick fix' option is to only deliver services that we are legally obliged to and cease all the aforementioned services, but even then the scale of cuts we would still have to make over and above those are likely to be impossible to achieve.

"Moreover, I do not think members stood for election so that this council could save itself at the expense of its communities by ceasing valued services which may then never be able to be reinstated."

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 group, would be scrapped under plans in the report, meaning qualifying premises would still receive support from the council by not having to pay full business rates.

The report reveals that the cost of providing non-statutory services is subsidised by the net income of about £390,000 from the council's car parks, which reduces running costs from over £742,000 to just over £353,000.

Cllr Kravis said: "The choices are very stark when a small council like ours needs to find over £1.12m to balance the books within just a few years.

"Ultimately, it can only be achieved by increased government grant funding, significantly raising income or by potentially unachievable drastic service cuts.

"I feel strongly that drastic cuts could leave our communities in dire straits at a time when the country is facing its bleakest economic outlook for generations.

"The recommendations in the report are proposals that aim to look after our communities as far as we possibly can, and for as long as we possibly can."

Cllr Tim Taylor, leader of West Somerset Council, said the considerations were based entirely on what was in the best interests of the people of West Somerset.