WORSE than expected Government funding cuts may have sounded the death knell for beleaguered West Somerset Council.

Council leader Cllr Tim Taylor warned the viability of the authority was at stake unless the Government took the council's situation seriously.

The council had budgeted for a cut in a specific grant of around 7.1 per cent next year, with more of the same over the next few years.

But on Monday, the Government announced an 8.9 per cent cut on all of the council's spending, meaning the authority was dealt an 13.8 per cent cut in grant aid in real terms - almost double what it had been expecting.

It was the worst settlement figure of all the county's local authorities and was the harshest hand the Government could have dealt.

Having already saved hundreds of thousands of pounds just to stay afloat, the authority is now facing savings of more than £1.2 million in the next two years.

Cllr Taylor said: "The council is trying to operate efficiently and provide value for money services for the people of West Somerset but the current round of Government cuts may mean that without special consideration and support from the Government the council may not remain financially and operationally viable.

"The £1.2 million cut to our budget over the next two years will involve staff redundancies.

"In order to cut costs we share some services with other councils, but the reality is that other councils are not rushing to share staff and services with our council, since our costs are already low.

"Another council will not relish the idea of amalgamating with or taking over the running of our council since, without special Government help, another council would need to make good our funding deficit."

He added: "If the council is to remain viable we need consideration and support from Government, which reflects the rurality and other special needs of West Somerset.

"Without this the future looks bleak."

The council has already been fighting for the Government to treat it as a special case and give it more funding due to its sparse rural population, low Council Tax base and high cost of service provision.

Although Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles has declined to meet district council chiefs personally, he has told them to speak to his Parliamentary Under Secretary Bob Neill.

Cllr Taylor said he was hopeful a meeting would be held sooner rather: "I invite and would welcome anyone from Government to come to West Somerset to witness the challenges we are facing and experience the real issues of administering a large rural area like this and then explaining to me how these cuts to our core funding can be justified."

Somerset County Council - already under fire from unions for cutting £43 million from its budgets - fared somewhat better in the spending review, although a spokesman remained cautious.

In a statement, the spokesman said: "The announcement is a highly complex series of figures issued by the Government and will take a few days for us to understand the full impact.

"Our current understanding is that the county council has had approximately £16 million taken away from it for the next year but there are also other grants totalling many millions of pounds and it is unclear what the full situation is in these cases."

But Taunton MP Jeremy Browne said the authority had only lost two per cent of its spending power in the forthcoming financial year and warned it against making "reckless cuts".

He said: "A two per cent reduction will require belts to be tightened but it is not an excuse for the wholesale closure of key services.

"Somerset has actually got a better budget allocation than most of the country."

On Wednesday, cabinet members agreed a further swathe of savings totalling £1.6 million, including numerous job losses, the renegotiating of contracts and cuts in services.

The council spokesman defended the move and added: "Despite already having announced cuts of £43 million and the Government's settlement figure, the council still has a budget deficit of millions of pounds to deal with.

"Further cuts are going forward to full council on December 22, with a view to setting a balanced budget on February 16."

Closer to home, West Somerset Council will have to save a further £290,000 in its 2011/12 budget, on top of the £414,000 already identified, while an additional £530,000 will have to be found in 2012/13.

"Once again the district has been penalised for having a small population living in such a large rural area, coupled with limited business opportunities due to its poor transport links - again because of its remoteness," Cllr Taylor said.