WEST Somerset Council will merge staff and service delivery with Taunton Deane Borough Council in a groundbreaking deal designed to protect frontline services and save money.

The link-up - which will result in the loss of around 37 full-time jobs across the two authorities - has been hailed as an historic moment which will help to secure the long-term future of both authorities.

In a joint statement after the proposal was agreed at separate full council meetings in Taunton and Williton on Tuesday, West Somerset Council leader Cllr Tim Taylor and Taunton Deane Borough Council leader Cllr John Williams, said the agreement was "vitally important".

"We are both facing very difficult futures financially - sharing services and joining up management will make significant savings while helping to maintain the services that our communities value.

"Now we have a clear mandate we can roll up our sleeves and get on with the task of implementing new ways of working together while retaining our democratic independence," the pair said.

Councillors were told the predicted annual savings - £307,000 for West Somerset and £1.5 million for Taunton Deane - were very much minimum figures and not targets.

Cllr Taylor stressed that each council would retain its democratic independence, neither would subsidise the other and each would continue to be led by its own democratically elected councillors.

He said the link-up was far more than just a case of making savings. It would provide West Somerset with greater resilience, a louder voice at local and national level and greater capacity to deliver priorities, including benefits from the proposed new power station at Hinkley Point.

"This is an opportunity to do the best for our residents, to protect services and to gain greater access to expertise, resilience and capacity.

"There will be compromises, of course there will, but we know we can't exist as a single council. That is not an option.

"We need to be bold and do the very best for West Somerset and its residents.

"I'm sure some of you will question aspects of the business case and some of you will think that the grass is greener on the other side.

"I think we have no alternative. Without savings with Taunton Deane we are unviable as a council," Cllr Taylor said.

Councillors were told Sedgemoor District Council had made an 11th hour attempt to change the proposal by recently suggesting a three-way tie-up between Taunton Deane, West Somerset and Sedgemoor.

But despite being asked to secure the support of Sedgemoor district councillors for the idea before Tuesday's meeting, no political mandate for the suggestion had been forthcoming.

Shirlene Adam, the project manager and second-in-command in the new joint management structure, said both West Somerset and Taunton Deane would look to share services with other local authorities in due course.

She said the business case for the two authorities to share staff and services clearly stacked up and said councillors faced an "amazing redesign opportunity", depending on the extent of their appetite for change.

The two authorities already have a shared chief executive, Taunton Deane-based Penny James, with West Somerset's current corporate director Bruce Lang becoming the assistant chief executive and monitoring officer in the newly merged management structure from January next year.

Councillors were told the bulk of the positions could be filled internally, with only a handful of jobs likely to have to be advertised externally.

A new post of new nuclear programme manager would also be created in direct response to a plea from West Somerset councillors to acknowledge the importance of ongoing negotiations relating to the Hinkley Point C development.

While the merged management structure would take effect in January, the middle management team would be appointed by next summer with all staff working in the shared structure by February 2015.

Ten councillors - five from each authority - will sit on a joint advisory group to oversee and monitor the delivery of the merger.

Independent Cllr Jon Freeman said the councils were being forced "from above" to reorganise the structure of local government but said he had "good feelings" about working more closely with Taunton Deane.

"I am here because I want to do my bit for the people of West Somerset and I put that above the needs of the entity known as West Somerset Council.

"I have good feelings about working with Taunton Deane Borough Council, they are an honourable organisation . . . and I see this as one way we can best look after the best interests of the people of West Somerset.

"By building a more critical mass we can best defend our interests against those with less honourable interests," Cllr Freeman said.

Conservative Cllr Mandy Chilcott questioned the level of savings likely to be achieved by the link-up and said it would not solve all the council's financial problems.

She was the only councillor to vote against the link-up, although fellow Conservative Cllr Martin Dewdney abstained from voting.

The vast majority of councillors voted 22-1 in favour of sharing staff and services with Taunton Deane.

In Taunton, the vote was 30 for and 22 against the proposal.

The agreement is the culmination of almost a year of negotiations to formally link the two authorities, both of which have faced growing financial pressures in the face of public sector funding cuts.

Cllr Williams, who attended both meetings, said he had been impressed by the quality of the debate in West Somerset and said the decision would secure both councils' futures.

In his joint statement with Cllr Taylor he added: "We must involve other authorities and public bodies to max the benefits of shared services where we will be able to make even greater savings.

"The future remains challenging as joint management and shared services will not deliver all the savings that we will need to balance the books."