WEST Somerset Council’s scrutiny committee spent nearly four hours deliberating the authority’s future at a special meeting on Tuesday.

But, at the end of it, councillors were still unable to come up with any recommendations on the three possible alternatives for the guidance of West Somerset and Taunton Deane councils when they meet to decide their fate at the end of the month.

And the IT system suggested for use in the transformation of West Somerset Council came in for criticism from a union leader.

Local Unison branch secretary Phil Bisatt told the committee that the council’s business case for the future seemed to be based on the assumption that “IT will provide a silver bullet” - that if the councils buy the proposed software it will fix everything.

“Past experience suggests this may not be the case,” he said. “Proprietary software can build in inflexibility and risk.”

Mr Bisatt said that both councils had an above-average proportion of elderly people, many of whom may not use the internet: “Under transformation they may effectively be denied the chance of face-to-face contact.”

Full report in the Free Press