Somerset MP Tessa Munt today welcomed the decision by the County Council to extend its public consultation period to allow proper examination of its proposed cuts to the Somerset Young Carers' Project budget.

However, Tessa has insisted "we must all keep the pressure on".

The decision, announced at yesterday's Scrutiny Meeting, is the result of protests against the Conservatives who had attempted to impose stringent cuts with the barest minimum of public consultation.

David Laws, MP for Yeovil Constituency, has today called on the Somerset County Council to reverse its programme of cuts to bus services as it emerged that over 3,000 residents across the Yeovil Constituency have already signed a petition against the wide-ranging service cutbacks. The planned cuts would leave many villages, such as Merriott, Winsham,West Chinnock and Hardington without any bus services.

South West Liberal Democrat MEP and President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform party Sir Graham Watson today introduced David Chalmers, who sits on the Board of the Kaleidoscope Trust, to European Commissioner for development Andris Piebalgs regarding EU funding for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex issues in the developing world.

At today's Scrutiny Meeting an alternative budget was presented by Ross Henley (Shadow Cabinet Member for Resources) and Sam Crabb (Leader of the County Liberal Democrat Group).

Ross said, We have identified massive waste of resources by the Conservative Administration and propose cutting that waste of money to reinvest in front-line key services. These are back office costs which the Tories have not tackled, by saving money we can propose to reverse some of the dreadful cuts from the Tory Cabinet."

Shock revelations at a meeting this morning, led to cross party calls for immediate information relating to Developer contributions to community projects to be re-assessed.

Ross Henley, Shadow Cabinet Member for Resources, said, "There are millions of pounds held by the County Council received from Developers, which are at risk of being lost. It is essential that the Cabinet acts now in looking at the risk of losing funds, if their Capital Investment Plans do not match what Developers should be contributing towards."

At today's Cabinet meeting the Liberal Democrats were astounded to hear that the County Council expects all services to under spend by a massive £10 million in the current financial year. This, after huge cuts have been already made to so many vital services.

Sam Crabb, Leader of the Liberal Democrat County Group, said "Not only are there massive under spends, but the Tory Administration are cutting more and deeper. We understood from the debate today that they are speeding up cuts to services to many vulnerable parts of our society. This will involve reductions to our bus services, highways services, gully clearing, and support for young carers, plus a host of other cuts that will affect young people, the elderly and rural areas very hard."

Somerset County Council sale of Quantock Land

It's official from Tory Cabinet member, Cllr David Huxtable "We want a smaller Council and will transfer this to others. That is the objective; it doesn't matter if it does not raise much money".

This was in response to a question of, how much money would be raised by the sale? In the case of some of these land sales there is very little competition and real concerns that the public interest has been ignored.

SOMERSET SERVICES WILL SUFFER FROM STAFF DEPARTURES

Somerset County Council has been rightfully making savings, and a lot of the staff have left as a result. However in the last year those leaving have turned into a flood of departures of highly qualified expertise.

Sam Crabb, Leader of the Somerset Liberal Democrat Group said, "We suggested reductions through vacancy management and selected voluntary redundancies. What is now happening is a haemorrhaging of highly qualified expertise that puts all services at risk."