Council shake up would give Northern Devon ‘a voice at the table’

Northern Devon ‘has everything to play for’ in a new unitary authority with Exeter if a local government shake-up plan supported by the county’s district councils is accepted.

Members of North Devon Council backed the 4-5-1 proposal at their meeting on Wednesday night (November 26) after hearing the north of the county would be well represented in it.

One of the main fears of councillors was the area would get swallowed up by Exeter in the reorganisation which looks to abolish district and county councils in favour of larger unitary authorities.

READ NEXT: Districts believe shake-up proposal could save over £500m in decade

But because of its large geographic area Northern Devon, which includes Torridge, looks like it could end up with around 30 councillors whilst Exeter could get around 20, giving it a big voice at the table.

The 4-5-1 proposal would create an Exeter and Northern Devon authority (encompassing North, Mid and East Devon and Torridge with Exeter), a Torbay and Southern Devon authority (West Devon, Teignbridge, South Hams and Torbay) and a stand alone authority for Plymouth.

Seven of the eight district councils in Devon have been championing the 4-5-1 model apart from Exeter, which wants to go it alone with extended boundaries.

North Devon has voted for the ‘4-5-1 +’ option which allows for Dartmoor National Park to be wholly contained within a single council area and includes the urban fringe of Plymouth that encompasses the new town of Sherford and Woolwell development area.

North Devon councillors have indicated to ministers that should Plymouth get its wish for a larger expansion into 13 parishes of the South Hams, it is willing to tweak its proposal.

All of Devon’s 11 councils are this week voting on their preferred options for local government but ultimately it will be the secretary of state who will decide which one is taken forward. There are currently five options on the table.

The new structure will be up and running by April 2028 but a shadow council will be voted in a year before that.

READ NEXT: Disarray as regions all want different things for Devon council restructure

North Devon Council employed consultants to look at eight options for local governance but the 4-5-1 model was found to be the most feasible. It would create unitary authorities ‘large enough to deliver efficiencies and strategic impact yet remain small enough to be agile and responsive to community needs’.

Savings of £77million to £125m a year are claimed from year six with cumulative savings of £508.3m to £805.3m over 10 years.

Cost savings are big on the government’s agenda as it wants to stop duplication and simplify complicated council structures.

Each unitary authority is expected be responsible for around 500,000 residents.

Concerns have been raised over a reduction in councillors under the restructure. In the 4-5-1 proposal they would drop from 418 to 234. In North Devon one councillor would be responsible for more than twice as many residents as they are now.

Councillor Peter Jones, who represents Witheridge, said there was nothing about this proposal that would benefit local residents and he would not be voting in favour of it.

He said North Devon Council had incredible leadership and councillors and it wasn’t right that they were being forced to undertake this reorganisation which would bring about the end of the council.

Barnstaple councillor Caroline Leaver said whatever members thought about local government reorganisation, it was going to happen anyway and they couldn’t stop it.

She said there was no correlation between size of authority and effectiveness, as being well run was the key.

She said children’s services in the county currently run by Devon County Council had been in the lowest rating for years and this was an opportunity to run them much better.

She said: “We need to grasp this and do the best we can do for our communities,” adding that “neighbourhood committees are key and decision making must be local.

“I think this is an opportunity for us to be really positive,” she said. “We have fantastic things going on here in North Devon but we can also learn from others.”

Cllr Josh Rutty for Barnstaple with Westacott said all five areas within the Exeter and Northern Devon proposed unitary authority shared an interest in the Exeter to Barnstaple railway line and the North Devon Link Road and would be able to work together rather than battling against each other as they had in the past.

Council leader David Clayton said he believed unitary councils were a good thing as they covered all local services ‘under one single umbrella’ from education to roads, social care and waste.

The present two tier system was confusing the public. He said under the new structure there would be ‘no hiding’.

He added: “We have everything to play for in a new unitary. Together with Torridge we will have more councillors than Exeter and we should be shouting from the rooftops about having hubs for a new unitary here in Northern Devon.”

Councillors voted in favour of the proposal by 27 votes to seven, with four abstaining.

They praised officers for the ‘brilliantly prepared’ documents which were being submitted to government.