DULVERTON is preparing to fight for its economic future as West Somerset's most rural and isolated town launches a campaign to save a raft of vital services.

The Exmoor community is reeling from proposals to close its library, axe its household waste recycling centre and no longer man front office facilities at its police station.

The town's youth club is also facing closure, while the future of the parish lengthsman scheme - an initiative involving 11 Exmoor parishes and aimed at improving the environment - could lose substantial support from two of its major funders.

A further bitter blow is the news that the town council is to lose the management of town car parks - and a substantial income stream - within the next couple of months.

Infuriated town councillors insist the threatened loss of services and funding currently provided by Somerset County Council or West Somerset Council has led them to question whether either authority has any understanding of the Government's Big Society objectives.

And they are staging a public meeting on January 25 to galvanise forces and draw up a strategy to oppose the wide-ranging cuts.

"My understanding is that all tiers of government should be working as partners to the benefit of communities and to this end working to promote localism and sustainability," said town council chairman Cllr Chris Nelder.

"These decisions are being made without consideration to the long-term effects and with little or no consultation with those directly affected.

"In the event that these cuts are made, the economic stability of this town will be destroyed.

"The businesses which rely heavily on tourism will suffer, as will residents living in and around Dulverton who rely on services not available elsewhere within a 20-mile radius.

"Yet again the community is being targeted as it is rural and isolated."

Cllr Nelder said the county council's decision to withdraw funding from Dulverton's library ignored the role it played in the social, psychological and economic well-being of the town.

"It is the most isolated library in the county and has the second-highest borrowing rate per head of population in Somerset," said Cllr Nelder.

Another county cut, the recycling centre, would lead to more fly tipping, increasing costs to the environment and community safety.

The youth club, currently also funded by the county, has more than 50 members, is open five days a week and according to Cllr Nelder is "brilliantly managed by local youth workers, young people themselves and a charitable trust".

"If Dulverton loses its youth programme, young people will drift and they and the whole community will suffer," he said.

Cllr Nelder said the parish lengthsman scheme, funded by both the county and district councils, was a successful project and a good example of Prime Minister David Cameron's Big Society in action.

But town councillors are most exasperated by the district council's decision to take Dulverton's car parks back 'in-house' from March 1.

Previously they were told they could continue managing the facilities until the introduction of county-wide Civil Parking Enforcement - due to come in force in August - which will also see on-street parking enforcement transfer from the police to local authorities.

Cllr Nelder said the financial impact on Dulverton could not be underestimated.

The local community is being urged to throw its support behind the town council and attend the planned public meeting, which will be held in the town hall, starting at 6pm.

"We also want people to lobby their local members of district and county councils and the local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger with regard to the proposed cuts," said Cllr Nelder.

"The town council cannot fight the cuts without the community's support."