A meeting of the district council on Monday night voted by 18 to 11 against the proposal put forward by Somerset County Council last month.

Mendip District Council will now write to Somerset County Council asking it to abandon its bid.

The county council will put its submissions on a new unitary authority to the government by 25 January.

Somerset currently has a "two-tier system" where five district councils and the county council work together to provide different services to the public.

Power shift

The proposal came about as a result of the Local Government White Paper which invited councils to make proposals for changes to current county/district arrangements or for future unitary (combined) structures, where it is in their interests to do so.

The proposal to oppose the unitary authority bid was put forward by Mendip District Council Leader, Conservative Councillor Ken Maddock.

He said: "The proposal will take power up and away from the people and unitary authority would naturally concentrate on the main centres of population, ie Taunton, Bridgwater and Yeovil.

"Frome, Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet, Street and Wells would get scant consideration after them and would have to survive on any crumbs that might be left over after the larger centres had been satisfied."

An amendment put forward by the opposition party, the Liberal Democrats, to "consider all business proposals that accompany unitary bids without political bias" was rejected by the full council.