Sorting Somerset Council's financial issues has been likened to "picking up rice pudding with your hands" by a senior councillor.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) issued the council with a 'best value notice' on July 14 - essentially a final warning to get its finances order before government commissioners are called in.
The council has stated it is working on addressing the issues at hand, having appointed a new chief financial officer to oversee the work leading up to its next budget in February 2027.
But members of its executive committee have warned that change isn't coming quickly enough to avoid the threat of effective bankruptcy, with councillor warning that the current approach "isn’t working".
Under the Local Government Act 1999, local authorities must comply with a 'best value duty' - essentially a series of standards which ensure they are providing value for money to local taxpayers.
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A 'best value notice' is a formal warning from the government that Somerset Council is not meeting these standards and urging it to take action.
It does not mean that commissioners will be sent in to run services or financial support secured at the budget in February will be withdrawn.
However, given that the council has received exceptional financial support for three consecutive years - and has already been warned that it will not get a fourth round of support - it still serves as a stark, final warning for the council.
Council leader Bill Revans was candid about the scale of the challenges facing the authority when its executive committee met in Taunton on Wednesday morning (August 5).
He said: "The findings confirm what we already knew about, and recommended actions are already under way.
"We have not in any way sought to keep from anybody the difficulties that our finances have been under, virtually right from day one.
"We want to reassure residents that we remain in control of our budgets and continue to be responsible for making decisions locally in the best interests of local people."
The council is already forecasting an overspend of £30m for the current financial year - meaning it will have to deliver significant savings through its transformation programme alongside other efforts to curb demands for front-line services.
Chief executive Duncan Sharkey warned that the scale of transformation was "not going to be sufficient" to single-handedly solve all the council's financial issues.
He said: "This is a serious position. It is effectively the highest level of intervention which MHCLG has before they start to intervene directly, either in sending in commissioners or instructing us in what to do.
"Despite receiving financial support, we are still in a fragile financial position and the scale of the financial challenge is still very significant.
"The scale of the transformation programme has not yet been sufficient to flatten the demand curve.
"This is about how we turn this authority into a 'normal' organisation, where we consistently deliver services to a high standard and have financial stability in the long term.
"We are advancing, but the government is saying it’s not quick enough."
The best value notice was issued after an independent review by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), which was published when the council's audit committee met in late-May.
Mr Revans said that the report "makes for sobering reading in a number of places", adding: "It's like running up the 'down' escalator.
"If we are achieving savings at the same rate at which demand pressures are increasing, we put ourselves in a position where we are standing still or even going backwards."
Councillor Mike Rigby, portfolio holder for economic development, planning and assets, likened the council's lack of progress to ongoing congestion issues on the M5 (following a lively discussion of these problems at a recent scrutiny committee meeting).
He said: "The things National Highways and the police are already doing aren't good enough. What we still need to hear from them is what they're going to do to fix the problem - what they're going to do differently.
"I read the background papers to this item and I got the same feel, really. The work under way isn't working.
"What we need to focus on and see going forward in these meetings, to see how we’re making progress against the concerns raised, is what we’re going to do differently.
"What we’re doing so far has not impressed the government."
Councillor Sarah Wakefield, portfolio holder for adults' services, housing and homelessness, said that simply setting up an 'improvement advisory board' to oversee the necessary changes would not prove successful.
She said: "My concern is that when we have a problem, we just set up another board - although I know that's not all that's happening here.
"We are moving from multiple improvements plans to a single, integrated delivery programme - I guess I thought that's what we were already doing.
"This is one of the biggest councils in the country - it's huge. Bringing it all together has been like rice pudding in your hands; there's always something slipping out all over the place when you think you've got it sorted."
Ms Wakefield said that much of the delays in transformation and delivering higher-quality savings lay in technical issues, with the various services inherited from the previous authorities operating on vastly different computer systems.
She said: "Microsoft Dynamics doesn't work very well in the private sector and not many authorities use it.
"We were bequeathed this program by the previous authority and we have been struggling to make it work properly.
"Getting all our computer systems from the various different councils to talk to each other and work together has been an absolutely massive job."
Councillor Richard Wilkins, portfolio holder for highways and transport, said that the timing of creating Somerset Council had contributed to its problems, taking personal aim at then-communities secretary Robert Jenrick MP (now Reform UK's Treasury spokesperson).
He said: "The insanity of Robert Jenrick going through local government reorganisation in Somerset when Microsoft Dynamics was starting to be used - it doesn’t take a genius to see that was a really bad idea. But we play the cards that are handed to us."
A formal update on the council's progress against the best value notice will come before its audit committee by late-November.
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