SIR — With regard to Joe Turner's letter (Free Press May 1), while not wanting to enter in to a protracted exchange of letters, I am happy to respond to the two outstanding points of the many already answered.

Firstly, the council did not "donate" the extra money from the Council Tax increase to the Minehead EYE project.

To clarify, local authorities have two budgets - revenue and capital budgets.

Council Tax provides income for the revenue budget, which funds the delivery of essential services – everything from collecting your refuse and recycling through to planning, building control, housing and benefits, food safety and a raft of other services.

From the overall sum collected annually, 72 per cent goes to Somerset County Council, 11 per cent goes to the Avon and Somerset Police, nine per cent comes to the district council, five per cent goes to the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue and three per cent goes into local town and parish precepts. 

When you are aware of how the tax is sliced up, you can see why our increase is relatively small, equating to only 11p per week on a Band D property. 

In addition, historically our Council Tax rises have been low in comparison to other authorities and, even with the increase, West Somerset remains one of the lowest taxing local authorities with the average household receiving all the council's services for less than £3 per week.

Clearly, with the normal increase in costs relating to service delivery, the council tax increase to the revenue budget could not be used to fund Minehead EYE.

The second budget is the capital budget.  Since finding the financial deficit in 2007, we have had to borrow money to support the capital budget to tide us over. 

However, I am sure people are aware that interest rates on borrowing are at an all-time low.  This means borrowing is relatively cheap. 

Therefore, a contribution of £250,000 to Minehead EYE from existing borrowing, which in turn draws in £3.2million of lottery funding, to provide much needed high class facilities for local young people and teenagers is not extravagant – the funding is a sensible investment while interest rates are low to deliver this once in a lifetime opportunity which was made possible by the dedicated group of volunteers behind the project.

A planning application for the development of the Vulcan Road car park site was submitted last week, clearly demonstrating the commitment of Morrisons in moving to Minehead. 

Given this, the borrowing for the Minehead EYE project is likely to be of a short-term nature.  So our one-off funding donation, which enables a 20-fold investment worth millions of pounds, is an incredibly important long-term investment in the health, well-being and skills of young people now and also for generations to come.

In addition, Mr Turner may not be aware that the value of prime food retail sites is one of the areas which, unlike residential land, has not been hit by the economic downturn.  In short, the asset is not being undersold.

On the subject of a unitary authority, local representation would have been cut from 31 voices to just eight.  

Would those eight voices have had the power to make sure this valuable investment in young people was made when there would be other demands from across the whole county? 

Over 80 per cent of people polled at the time said no to unitary and voted to keep their local representation.  The government also decided a unitary authority was not in Somerset's best interests.

In a recent survey, local residents ranked activities for teenagers in their top three priorities.  

I am delighted that councillors recognised local people's wishes and that the council has helped, at a comparatively small cost, to provide them. 

That is what local representation is for and, clearly, the decision to invest in Minehead EYE is in accordance with the wishes of the majority of people.

I am happy to meet Mr Turner or any member of the community to discuss any aspect council finances and priorities at the Williton or Minehead offices.

Cllr Keith Ross,

Leader,

West Somerset Council.