INDEPENDENT auditors should investigate why an extra £3 million of taxpayers' cash is being requested to fund the merger of two councils, an opposition councillor says.

The additional sum would cover pay offs to more staff than expected taking voluntary redundancy and to maintain services during the transition period.

Taunton Deane Borough Council and West Somerset Council are combining into a single authority, Somerset West and Taunton Council, from April.

They already have joint management and staff teams, which has saved £1.8 million a year, and the full blown merger was agreed to cut spending by a further £3.1 million.

A spokeswoman for both councils said: "We have identified opportunities to increase the savings being delivered, which will help to balance the books at the same time as protecting and improving services.

"With the recruitment process nearing completion, it is now apparent that the overall redundancy costs of transformation will exceed earlier budgets.

"However, this will be offset by the additional costs being recovered through savings in less than three years, so still providing value for money for taxpayers and tenants."

Redundancy payouts will rise by £2.387m - £1.88m paid by the Deane and £507,000 by West Somerset.

And "small increases in other costs to maintain service provision during the transition period and for a short time after" will put taxpayers in the Taunton area back £564,000 and those in the Minehead area £121,000.

Penny James, chief executive of the two authorities, said: "We want to ensure service standards are maintained whilst changes are being implemented, so we plan to invest more in this during the period of changing how we deliver services.

"We are still very much on track to deliver financially viable local government services in our area in the future."

Cllr Habib Farbahi, of the LibDems at Deane House, slammed the request for more funding.

He said: "This is very serious. An independent audit needs to be commissioned so the people responsible explain why they've agreed to the merger and all these extra costs.

"The public deserves to have some answers as to why the merger has gone so much over budget.

"The new council is only going to last three or four years maximum anyway as Somerset will be run by a unitary authority pretty soon."