Sensible Devolution or a Dog’s Dinner?

Article by Zoe Clough & Peter Shearn

The carve-up of Devon proposed and decided by the Government was announced last week.

Over the last year the Totnes Pulse has been reporting on the ins and outs of local government reorganisation and what it might mean for the South Hams.  (see articles here)

The scores on the doors are now thus:

• Totnes will be split, with the bits of Bridgetown currently within Berry Pomeroy Parish being ceded to an expanded Torbay, while the rest of Totnes merges into a new Devon Coast and Countryside authority.
• Kingswear is absorbed into Torbay but on the other side of the Dart, Dartmouth joins Totnes in the DCC  (not Devon county council, which will cease to exist).
• Exeter, Plymouth and Torbay will all expand and what’s left of the county will form the huge Coast and Countryside territory, stretching from Ilfracombe in the north to down here in the far south.

The local government shuffle is intended to pave the way for more devolution of power out of Whitehall.  Elections for the new councils are due to be held in May next year and they are all due to be open for business in  April 2028.

South Hams council leader Dan Thomas is disappointed. “Once again the Government has demonstrated its failure to understand or appreciate the needs of Devon’s rural towns and villages or our coastal communities.  The notion that Dartmouth should be aligned to Ilfracombe , while Kingswear becomes part of Torbay can only be a nonsense.”

South Devon MP Caroline Voaden (Lib Dem) will be raising the local impacts but as the announcement has come just days before the new Prime Minister arrives at Number 10 and while Parliament is in recess, political attention will be elsewhere.

This new four unitary structure is what Exeter and Plymouth  (already unitaries) have been advocating.

Exeter’s Labour MP, Steve Race said: “I am delighted that the government has backed Exeter’s proposal, recognising the city’s role as the economic powerhouse of Devon. This has been a long-time coming, and it was increasingly unsustainable for Exeter to remain a poorly funded district council, with most spending and decision-making taking place at Devon County Council.”

Plymouth’s Labour MP Luke Pollard is also a strong supporter of the deal.  But other MPs and councillors are furious.

The BBC reported that Devon County Council leader Julian Brazil said the county had been “betrayed“.

“This is a deceitful decision,” he said. “People in Devon, their council tax will be going up and their quality of services will be going down.” he also states “It’s also going to cost tens of millions to implement. That money is going to be spent on breaking contracts, making people redundant and then rehiring them.”

Across the country, Essex County Council have responded to changes in their region by taking the government to court. It is looking very likely that Devon County Council will be treading the same path with Cllr Brazil stating: “We’re almost certainly going to take it to judicial review.”

Local Lib Dem Councillor John Birch is seething over what he sees as “time and work money wasted” through imposed top-down implementation of changes that show little regard for self governance. Each local authority was tasked to produce a programme of how they would bring about devolution for the region. Considerable resources and public funding was spent on putting together plans. (outlined in the previous Pulse Article). He told the Pulse: “It’s appalling. Local democracy has been thrown out the window. It’s a total sham!” – Indeed one local Totnes Town Councillor spoke off the record to the Pulse several weeks ago, claiming that none of the local proposals would be considered because the LGR was already a ‘done deal‘.

Green Councillor Georgina Allen is similarly angry at the government proposals. With Torbay now swallowing land up to the A38 including the Berry Pomeroy section of Totnes at the top of Bridgetown, this may well lead to high levels of developments changing the local landscape forever. The majority of Totnes falls into the ‘what’s left’ section of the carve up – Cllr Allen referred to it as a “wilderness” of a Country & Coastal Authority. Squashed in between the areas taken up by Plymouth, Torbay and Exeter.

Whether this reorganisation  will be a success is of course impossible to judge now but the sheer size of the new Devon unitary –  a journey time of two hours west to east and two and a half hours north to south – poses many questions.

Such as – where will the new HQ be?  How many councillors will it have?  Where will my nearest councillor be?

Will house building targets change?  Will council tax go up?

Readers of the Totnes Pulse – if you have questions, please get in touch and comment  – we will try and find answers.