SENDING in Government commissioners to run Somerset Council would be a disaster for residents, local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has warned.

The unitary authority is facing a £100 million budget deficit with cuts in both services and jobs now likely.

But if it declared itself bankrupt, it would be placed under direct Government control.

Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate on council funding in Somerset, Mr Liddell-Grainger told MPs he had experience of commissioners being called in to run the former district council in West Somerset and knew full well what the outcome would be.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said: “I know it is an absolute disaster.

“If they come in to Somerset, I can tell honourable members exactly what will happen.

“They will shut the recycling centres, stop the buses, and pull back on the funding for roads, for the most vulnerable, and for many others.

“No matter what we do - Parliamentarians, councillors or anyone else, parishes, towns, or whatever - it will make no difference at all.

“None of us wants the council to go into special measures.”

All Somerset MPs have been pleading for extra Government cash for the council, which declared a financial emergency in November when it became clear it was facing a £70 million cost increase just for providing adult social care.

Some additional funding has been provided, but the council said it was not enough to stave off the looming crisis.

Mr Liddell-Grainger, who repesents West Somerset and will be the Conservative candidate at this year’s General Election in a new constituency for the Culm Valley and several parishes around Wellington, said the county needed to be granted an extra tranche of Levelling Up money.

He said: “Somerset has not done very well out of Levelling Up.

“Levelling Up would help immeasurably.

“What we need to look at is the learning of skills, rural deprivation, helping young people get on to the job ladder in rural areas, that covers the whole of Somerset.

“We have to work together to get the funding we need to stabilise the situation, and this cannot wait until after the election.”