Midsomer Norton Town Council has been urged to have total transparency when it comes to discussing the budget.

At the monthly meeting of the TC it was revealed that a working party of the council has been set up to talk about the budget involving 9 out of 11 councillors.

This led Cllr Shaun Hughes to ask whether this could actually involve any public consultation on proposals for setting a budget - and ultimately the local rate of council tax. " The budget should be available for people to review."

Cllr Hughes said that the papers on the current budget proposals were not easily accessible on the council web site, and that once he found them there were signs of quite "significant" spending. He told the meeting that by his calculations, the council would be spending in year two of the budget laid out, more than the whole total of four years worth of town spending.

He told the meeting spending was at £464,000 - which would lead to a big increase the precept.

" What is this spending, is it for... that piece of string? " A reference to his concerns about the spending on the Town Hall renovations

For the first time the Town Council meeting was filmed, which you can see on You Tube.

The idea of a proper consultation on any cuts coming, was echoed by Alex Davis from the Town Trust who said cuts to community spending could ultimately lead to more costs as service cuts would lead to long-term problems.