Call for more than one option in council shake-up

Councillors in North Devon are to thrash out ideas on how they see local government in the future, with calls for more than one option for how the county is carved up.

A general consensus has developed among district council leaders in the county for an arrangement known as 1-5-4, which would split Devon into three unitary authorities.

The ‘1’ would be a ‘Plymouth Plus’ council, which would see the city expand its boundaries into part of the South Hams.

The ‘5’ would be Exeter, East Devon, Mid Devon, North Devon, and Torridge.

The ‘4’ would be an amalgamation of Teignbridge, Torbay, South Hams, and West Devon.

But at a full district council meeting, Cllr Malcolm Prowse (Ind, Bratton Fleming) wanted reassurance that councillors would look at more than just one option so they had “a real choice.”

“Some of us keep changing our minds and are not quite sure. I want to make sure we have the right options that allow people of all political persuasions to get behind one of them after a proper debate.”

Council leader David Clayton (Lib Dem, Barnstaple with Westacott) said: “It’s not an easy one. At the moment, we are going with, in very loose terms, the 1-5-4 idea. That one has a consensus amongst district leaders.

“The deadline is 21 March to submit initial ideas to the government, but we don’t have to just put one forward.”

All councillors have been urged to attend an informal discussion on Monday (3 March).

At an extraordinary meeting of the council on 19 March, councillors will vote on options for North Devon.

Cllr Clayton said it is important for the district to stay with Torridge as it shares a local plan and works together on issues including crime prevention and regeneration.

“But nothing is firm. We hope to have a larger discussion on Monday. It is hoped that we can have some kind of consensus among the districts because the government says it will look at initiatives that have consensus.”

Plans to shake up local government will mean the abolishment of district and county councils into larger unitary authorities covering areas of 500,000 people.

Exeter has previously indicated that it would like to become a unitary authority but would need to expand its boundaries as it only has around 129,000 residents.

Plymouth is more than twice that size but still too small to be unitary unless the government allows it some wriggle room.

Cllr Peter Jones (Ind, Witheridge) said: “The challenge that we have is we are a small voice around a big table, so we need to make sure that voice is really heard. It’s really easy to sit in those discussions and be driven by the larger communities.

“We have a talented group of councillors, leaders, and officers here but a small amount of time to get this right.”

Cllr Robin Milton (Ind, Bishops Nympton) agreed: “We need to stand up for North Devon, or we will become one of the rural backwaters to the much more populated southern parts of Devon.”

Chief executive of the council Ken Miles said it is important to present a range of options to the extraordinary meeting so members had a choice to vote on.