More than 550 people will be leaving Somerset Council in April – before the organisation has decided how services will be run in their absence.

The council is in the middle of a transformation programme, which will see hundreds of staff leaving the organisation at the end of the current financial year as the delivery of different public services are streamlined.

The reduction in staff is fundamental to the council delivering a balanced budget, on top of selling off non-operational assets and being allowed to raise council tax by 7.5 per cent – higher than the 4.99 per cent cap which the government usually allows.

But auditors have warned that these redundancies will be pushed through before the new structure of the council has been finalised – meaning that the delivery of key services, especially those affecting the elderly and vulnerable, could be put at risk.

The council responded that it had to move at a faster pace than originally intended in light of the previous government's decisions and its perilous financial position.

Taunton resident David Orr raised concerns before the council's executive committee on Monday morning (February 3), warning of a "credibility gap" between the promises of "magic IT" and what transformation could actually deliver.

He said: "Last week, your auditor Grant Thornton stated: 'The council is delivering the workforce reduction programme before the development of the detailed transformation programme business case and before key enabler projects, relating to ICT, data and process improvement, have been implemented'.

"Despite the auditor's red flag, you are pushing on with 555 staff leaving,

without the vital enabling projects being completed.

"Extraordinarily, service levels will only be decided after the 555 staff have gone! Surely, the horse goes before the cart!"

Nearly two years since it officially replaced Somerset County Council and the four district councils, Somerset Council is still running on multiple different IT systems for its planning and environmental health services.

Mr Orr warned that the council faced a repeat of previous IT failures if it did not get its act together.

He said: "South West One for Somerset County Council and Taunton Deane Borough Council, with its 'magic IT', failed spectacularly.

"Ignite was procured to deliver a 'digital revolution' for Taunton Deane and South Somerset District Council. Under ten per cent of the promised services were delivered in Taunton Deane, before the staff were expensively made

redundant and, in many cases, were rehired or replaced with costly agency staff.

"My concern is that letting staff go before the enabling projects complete risks service disruption.

"Can you assure the people of Somerset that with so many staff going before any enabling projects complete, we won't see the same disastrous outcomes?"

Councillor Theo Butt Philip, portfolio holder for transformation and human resources, said the changes were designed to "draw a line under the uncertainty" which had characterised the council in recent times.

Responding directly to Mr Orr's question, he said: "The IT element of the transformation programme has been designed to deliver significant cost savings and cost avoidances.

"Our programme of IT consolidation is ongoing, moving to a single revenue system. Our financial situation means we have to work at pace."

Councillor Sarah Wakefield, portfolio holder for adult services, housing and homelessness, said it was unreasonable to have expected the new council to run on a new IT system from day one of its operation.

She said: "When unitary came forward, we all knew that part of that was to save money – and if you save money, you're implicitly going to have less services.

"This sort of restructuring cannot happen overnight. It would have been nice to do this on April 1, 2023, but that would have been impossible.

"This has been like repairing or reshaping an aircraft while it's in flight. We are keeping the show on the road – it has been bruising and damaging, but this is an opportunity too.

"You wouldn't put five companies into one body on the same day and start with a completely new IT system – you just wouldn't do that."

Councillor Graham Oakes, portfolio holder for public health, climate change and the environment, said the council was doing the best it could given the previous government's intransigence and a lack of funding to support the transition from five councils to one.

He said: "Central government decided Somerset would be reorganised, but it did not see that project through. If central government was in the private sector, it would fail within a week.

"Had we been properly resourced, we could have approached this in a different way.

"The reality was that the choices were very limited because of the financial emergency, and we still have limited choices.

"We need central government to work with us – hopefully now we will see a more positive way forward."

The council's own impact assessments have concluded that the staffing cuts will lead to longer delays within its public rights of way team, which could lead to "longer average closure periods" on footpaths and bridges as a result of disputes or obstructions.

The assessments also found there would be "longer response times" within the council's waste services, with residents – especially the elderly and disabled – having to wait longer for bins to be replaced or missed collections to be picked up.

Councillor Dave Mansell, who leads the opposition Green group on the council, said: "We are taking our waste team down from 23 to 13, and the assessment says we may not be able to serve vulnerable people.

"It also states more waste will be going into disposal rather than recycling. My view is we're cutting the team back too far."

Councillor Richard Wilkins, portfolio holder for transport and waste services, replied: "We will have to watch the waste services side of things very carefully to make sure we are protecting the most vulnerable people.

"But we have had to make these changes, and we have to put our personnel in place to ensure everything is mitigated as best as we can."

The full council will meet at Somerset County Cricket Club in Taunton to approve the transformation proposals on Wednesday (February 12).