How much has your Devon county councillor spent in their community so far?

The amounts North Devon and Torridge county councillors have spent from their individual grants budget to help their communities have been revealed following research by the Local democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

The data shows that only five of the 60 Devon county councillors elected in May have yet to start spending the £8,000 locality budget they receive each year to help support local organisations and initiatives.

None of those are in North Devon, where Braunton’s Graham Bell and Barnstaple’s Syed Jusef have already allocated more than £5,000 each from their grants to local causes, while South Molton’s Richard Hopley has spent just under £5,000 and Andrea Davis for Combe Martin Rural just over £4,000.

Fremington’s Frank Biederman has so allocated just over £2,500, Barnstaple’s Caroline Leaver just under that, Ilfracombe’s Sara Wilson just over £2,000 and Chulmleigh’s Ed Tyldsley £1,800.

In Torridge, the big spenders are Torrington’s Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin, who has allocated more than £5,600, followed by Bideford’s Mark Barry who has spent £3,800, Holsworthy’s Lynne Rowsell just over £2,000, Northam’s Dermot McGeough £2,000 exactly and Bideford’s Robin Julian has spent £500.

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Across the entire council, councillors get a total of £480,000 to spend on community endeavours.

So far since the current crop of councillors were elected in May, £153,000 has been either spent or pledged via 207 applications, some of which are still being assessed.

Any unspent money does usually roll-over into the next financial year, however, around £55,000 that was unspent by councillors last year is being redirected into two community pots.

That’s because the unspent locality budget cash doesn’t transfer to new councillors following a local election.

The only five yet to have spent according to DCC figures as of September 1 are Andrew Leadbetter, Heather Horner, Richard Jefferies, Stuart Rogers and Tony Dempster.

The person who has spent the most is Cllr Debo Sellis, one of the administration’s longest serving councillors, who has spent £6,950.

You can see exactly how much your county councillor has spent out of their locality budget by CLICKING HERE.