Sam Crabb, leader of the Liberal Democrat Somerset County Group has criticised the leadership of Somerset County Council in their "failure to manage" Southwest One (SWOne). Somerset County Council's Leader, Conservative Councillor Ken Maddock, outlined during last Wednesday's Full Council meeting that Procurement Savings due from the SWOne contract were still not being met.

During the Full Council meeting Of Somerset County Councillors held on Wednesday, the Conservative-led authority refused to adopt a fair and sensible approach to the County Library Service.

The Liberal Democrat County Group put forward a motion requesting that no library should have funding withdrawn without consultation with the local community and that libraries should be regarded as public spaces for the whole community.

The Tories of Somerset County Council are putting back £175000 into Youth Services for 1 year only!

Whilst applauding any extra funds, let's be realistic and put this into context. Using County figures, the original cut of £19.710m has been reduced by 0.9%!! Cllr Osman now says he is listening and has lauched a consultation excercise, does this include the other 99.1%? Or is he still not listening?

Somerset County Councillors during Wednesday's Full Council Meeting agreed to a massive investment into the infrastructure of Somerset. There was cross-party agreement on the need to invest in Somerset, including the installation of Superfast Broadband to be delivered by 2015, more investment in schools and specific projects with our roads.

Somerset Liberal Democrats have slammed the Conservative County Council's decision to "rush the sale" of public woods and moorlands including Great Wood, Custom Common at Over Stowey, and Thorncombe Hill near Crowcombe. Councillor Ross Henley, Shadow Cabinet member for Resources on Somerset County Council, called on the Conservative administration to "halt their decision" and "keep areas of outstanding natural beauty in public hands".

Somerset Liberal Democrats have slammed the decision by the Conservative administration at Somerset County Council to reject further savings of £4.4 million that were outlined in an Opposition Alternative Budget, presented by the Liberal Democrats at Wednesday's Full Council Meeting. Liberal Democrat County Councillors have said that the 'back office' savings would have reduced the impact of Conservative cuts to front line services.

Imagine a fine Autumn day. You are looking out of your window, watching the council mowers cut the grass verges for the 8^th time this year, checking that it all looks neat and tidy……..No, wait. That was before the Tories got control of Taunton Deane and Somerset County Councils. Thanks to cuts from both councils, this year you will only be seeing the second and final grass cut of the year in Autumn. The first was 6 months ago ! The grass is now knee high. Each cut is much more expensive and they have to buy new equipment (flail cutters) because the grass is so long. In streets without pavements, the long grass could be dangerous and messy for pedestrians. You won't be able to see the dog's mess you are about to step in.

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.

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.