SOMERSET Council is not going bankrupt... yet.

The authority’s interim chief financial officer Clive Heaphy said it was ‘not in the territory’ of declaring bankruptcy in the next 12 months.

Mr Heaphy was speaking before Tuesday’s Government announcement blocking a proposed 11 per cent council tax rise this year.

He said the projected budget gap for 2026-27 had shrunk from £73 million in December to about £41.4 million a month later.

The 11 per cent council tax rise would have raised about £21 million to help close the gap.

Mr Heaphy said he was ‘not immediately worried’ the council would not be able to set its annual budget, and expected the gap to fall further once Government confirmed its final local government funding settlement.

He said: “We have probably moved slightly away from a financial emergency, but let us be clear, we still have deep issues to do with our budget and balancing our finances, and still have a lot of work to do.

“We need to match spending to our income without reliance on exceptional financial support, reserves, or one-off savings.

“We had a gap coming into this year originally of £101 million, representing 17 per cent of our net revenue budget.

“That is a very large deficit by any measure.

“I am pleased to say this year, we are not in section 114 territory at the moment.

“While the reserves are not the levels where we need them to be, I do not think they represent a risk as long as we are not calling on them for regular, day-to-day spending.”

Green Party group leader Cllr Dave Mansell said: “Those who do not want to pay more council tax will have to say which public services they do not want any more.

“We have already dropped some that we should have kept going.”