There is no more meat left on the bone in Somerset says UNISON, after the announcement of a spending freeze by Somerset County Council.

Services in Somerset is facing further cuts due to the impact of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review on local government funding.

Oliver Foster-Burnell, Regional Organiser for UNISON said: "Here in Somerset the county council have just announced proposals that are set to see £900,000 removed from funding given to homeless services, the impact of that on the local community will be huge and costs will be felt by other authorities like the police and social services”.

The council along with other local authorities across the country have endured funding reductions of over £100 million pounds over the last four years.

The counci'ls announcement means that it will now look closely at how it responds to things that it regards as non-essential services.

“There is just no more meat that can come off the bone here in Somerset. Our members have seen restructures, redundancies, changes in working practices and our message to Government is that enough is enough.

"The council has stated it is set to overspend by £7 million, its overspend within other areas like children’s social care is set to reach £11 million by the end of this financial year and the council is already using its reserves to pay for that.

"It is clear that the Government are asking councils to deliver more with no additional resources.

“The e-mail from the chief executive yesterday doesn’t go into detail about the impact of the announcement to freeze non-essential spending but the example of the proposals to cut funding from the homeless service is just one example of a non-statutory area of funding to be cut”.