The local elections on May 4 will be the most contested in Midsomer Norton for years.

There are a full list of candidates who are saying they will make the town better. The election will be a lot more keenly contested in the North Ward, where nine candidates will be fighting for only five seats.

But there is a problem, as outlined by the Locum Clerk at the last full Town Council meeting before proceedings were suspended pending those town votes.

That is - the lack of money to carry out any big changes.

The new Midsomer Norton Town Council will have less than £12,000 to give out as community grants, warned the clerk at the recent budget setting meeting.

The Town Council finally set their budget for the 2023/24 financial year earlier this month, ahead of May's elections. However, councillors were warned that with previous grant commitments dating back to 2020, £7,200 had already been committed leaving the new council with only £11,800 to allocate from their allotted £19,000 budget.

The community grant budget had already taken a £1,000 cut on that proposed to councillors in February 2023 and then there is a big cost of insurance, set to add £9,612 to the budget agreed on April 3.

At the meeting, Locum Clerk, Paul Russell, explained that three year revenue grants made to Somer Valley FM in October 2020 and November 2022, combined with a further revenue grant made to the Farmers' Market in December 2021, mean that £7,200 has already been committed, suggesting that Councillors "defer the Trauma Breakthrough and the Midsomer Norton Scout Group applications, which if you gave the full amount would leave you with £1,800 for the new council" for the next eleven months.

There are capital costs to the Town Hall transformation and Wellow Brook Walk, so as it stands community grants have taken a hit over recent years, accounting for 5% of the Precept in 2021/22 and falling to 3% in the last financial year. Increasing the budget to £19,000 in the current financial year would have represented a rise to 4% of the record £469,190 Precept take, but in real terms the £11,800 available for allocation, keeps the proportion of the Precept available for community grants at 3%.