A ROW has broken out between Somerset County Council and Burnham MP Tessa Munt over statements she made in parliament regarding cuts to children's centres.

Speaking in the Commons, Ms Munt said: “May we have a debate about Somerset County Council's rush to axe children's centres when it has done a skewed consultation, questions were loaded, and the staff have been gagged?

“Its report shows that it does not even know how many children are affected, and the only failings in the Ofsted report for the two children's centres that I have seen were caused by the council's failings to resource them.”

But Conservative leader of Somerset County Council, Cllr John Osman, has described Ms Munt's comments as “sadly typical, misinformed and blatantly playing party politics”.

He added: “An extensive consultation exercise has already been undertaken asking users of the children's centres their views.

“We have decided to go further and launch specific consultations in each children's centre.”

Cabinet Member for Children and Families, Cllr Frances Nicholson said: “Tessa Munt MP fails to understand that we have proposed to put £1million more into frontline services and employ 30 new members of staff.

"Spending money on services rather than bureaucracy is surely something we can all agree upon.”