WITH West Somerset residents facing cuts to vital services, a local MP is calling on David Cameron to award greater government funding to suffering rural councils.

Conservative MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset Ian Liddell-Grainger has joined an all-party Rural Fair Share Campaign with 90 other MPs to argue that the Government does not take the extra cost of delivering services in rural areas into account.

And as a result the effects of cuts in Government support are falling far more heavily on council tax payers outside metropolitan areas, Mr Liddell-Grainger said.

Under next year’s provisional settlement formula metropolitan authorities will face a 19 per cent cut to their government grant over four years while for shire counties and rural unitaries the figure is 30 per cent.

Campaigning MPs have asked for a £130 million increase in the rural services delivery grant over the next four years but so far ministers have offered just £65.5 million.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said Somerset would suffer worse than many counties because all its councils were classed as rural.

“This absolutely flies in the face of all logic,” he said.

“It is difficult for anyone to sustain the claims that the Government is taking more account of the interests of countryside-dwellers in its decision-making processes when these figures are held up to the light.

“It is simply impossible to apply the same funding yardstick to rural authorities as is used to measure the needs of urban ones. We all know urban areas have their problems: they are rarely out of the headlines.

“But rural areas have their own – and currently they appear to be being ignored.

“As the funding formula stands the greatest burden in terms of paying for local services will fall on people in rural areas, where incomes are generally lower and service provision is already less generous.

“But unjust settlements like this are simply going to lead to economic stagnation, more hardship, the closure of more rural businesses and an increased drift by young people into the towns and cities where life will be more affordable for them.”