THE Government failed to consult with anybody in West Somerset before excluding the district from a new £20 million fund aimed at rejuvenating deprived towns, a Freedom of Information question has revealed.

Exmoor farming entrepreneur and political campaigner James Wright said the Tiverton and Minehead constituency had been left ‘out in the cold’.

The ‘Pride in Place’ programme was extended last year to include 169 new locations, but none of them were in the constituency.

Now, a FoI request by Mr Wright has shown that not a single local person was consulted before the decision was made.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government admitted it had ‘no recorded representations or correspondence’ from anybody in the constituency during the design of the funding phase.

Mr Wright said: “More controversially, the department refused to release the scores that determined which towns got the cash and which did not.

“The response also confirmed the Government did not perform any impact assessments on why specific places, like Tiverton and Minehead, were excluded, stating the process was ‘undertaken entirely through quantitative assessment’.

Mr Wright said the findings proved that rural communities were being governed by ‘faceless spreadsheets’.

He said: “Government by spreadsheet is leaving areas like ours behind.

“Imagine the impact in towns like Minehead, Tiverton, Watchet, or Wiveliscombe this money would have had.

“It is a rigged game.

“While we are told to wait, billions are being funnelled into urban areas where Labour is more worried about the vote.

“We do not want secret scores, we need the investment we were promised for our high streets and communities.”

The Government maintained its methodology identified the ‘most in need’ neighbourhoods using national data.

But, Mr Wright argued its approach systematically overlooked the unique challenges of rural poverty and the ‘hidden’ deprivation found in market and coastal towns.