A South Somerset parish council clerk has joined MP David Laws in condemning a Countryside Agency survey.

"I'd like to know where they get the information from," said Hinton St George Parish Council clerk Colin Payne.

The Countryside Agency, however, blames the uproar on a national newspaper.

It all started when Yeovil MP David Laws learned of the Countryside Agency's Rural Services 2000 survey.

The survey encompasses many different areas such as crime prevention, provision of schools, post offices, banks, pubs, shops etc.

Mr Laws was so upset that he issued a press release after having heard that parish councils in Hinton St George, Kingstone, Cricket St Thomas, Wayford and Closworth were deemed to be "sleeping" while councils in Brympton, Chillington, Donyatt, Knowle St Giles, South Petherton, Stoke-sub-Hamdon and Wambrook were "barely active".

In fact, Mr Laws was so upset that he promised to press for an inquiry into the matter.

"I was absolutely astonished and angered to see that so many councils which work extremely hard have been characterised as 'sleeping' and 'barely active'.

"This report is ludicrous and is a grave insult to a great number of people in parish councils who work hard to improve our local communities without financial reward," Mr Laws fumed.

"I don't see how these classifications can help government policy as they are clearly grossly inaccurate and drawn up by people who wouldn't know a good parish council if it landed on them," Mr Laws added.

The Clarion Advertiser picked a 'sleeping' council at random to see what it was all about.

Colin Payne has been the clerk at Hinton St George Parish Council for nine months, saying the Heritage Lighting Project is only six weeks from seeing new street lights being installed in the village.

The parish council, which has seven members and meets every month, is also about to start a project raising money to fund pavement slabs suitable for a conservation area.

In addition, there was a large turnout last Friday when the parish council arranged a public meeting to discuss the future of The Reading Room, which is like a small village hall according to Mr Payne.

"If that is sleepy, tell me what we are supposed to do," he said.

Nigel Ellway of the Countryside Agency blamed a national newspaper for having "misreported" the facts, and also gave some background information.

"This information was available last April and has re-emerged following a parliamentary question by Lib Dem Colin Breed.

"The piece in The Times spoke of it as a measure of parish councils - it is not. The indicator of community vibrancy refers to the presence of community activity opportunities.

"The components of the indicator are; presence of a village hall or similar in active use; contested parish council elections; local village traditions and annual events; presence of a pub; co-opted members of the parish council," Mr Ellway explained.

He also said that things may have changed since the information was gathered in 2000.