A GOVERNMENT mistake could cost Somerset tax-payers nearly £900,000 according to Chard town and county councillor Jill Shortland.

Cllr Shortland, who holds the purse strings at the county council, said the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister wants to claw back £883,000 in grants because it made a mistake in its data - money that has already been spent on services like education, social services and roads.

Last year's grant to local authorities across Britain was based on provisional population figures from the 2001 census. But a re-evaluation of the census returns has found that 250,000 more people are living in Britain than the Government thought.

Rather than pay out more to the inner city authorities where these "missing people" live, the OPDM is insisting that rural counties like Somerset shoulder much of the burden with £26million at stake across counties in England.