South Hams District Councillor Speaks Out on Devolution

A new year is fast approaching – but will it be a happy one for our district councillors?  Cllr John McKay , a South Hams Lib Dem, has written to the Totnes Pulse exclusively with his thoughts on Labour’s radical devolution plan for reorganising local government. (see previous Pulse articles here & here) And he’s not celebrating.

SHDC is holding a special full council meeting on January 6th, ahead of a Devon County Council meeting on January 9, to prepare their responses to the Government on January 10. Not a lot of time for such a big change. “We are effectively being taken out and shot”, he told the Pulse. The eventual shape of Devon is yet to be decided. Could it be split in two? Or remain as one huge authority – a “fat burger” in his words – like Cornwall.

What will happen to the unitary authorities of Plymouth (home of the Freeport) and Torbay?
Here is Cllr McKay’s colourful email and this is specifically his personal opinion – The Pulse would like YOUR views too – so please get in touch.

Cllr McKay says:

“Your District Council is due to be abolished, wound up, terminated, dissolved… absorbed into the pulsating blubber of some grunting colossus, apparently to effect efficiencies and better outcomes. A huge halitotic belch will doubtless follow.

The government announced this in a white paper, published just a few days before Christmas.

Devon County Council is already salivating at the prospect. Its Leader has made it clear it wants to swallow the Districts and Torbay. But this self-serving lumbering bureaucratic behemoth is close to bankrupt, both financially and politically, and now wants to use this opportunity to suspend elections in May this coming year, so it can cling on to its unfortunate existence.

Like most of local government, it is full of hard working dedicated and talented officers. Devon County Council is no exception. It is nonetheless a bureaucratic leviathan from a bygone age due largely to its political masters lack of imagination over decades. To build a bright new future, one would not chose this fat-burger as the foundation.

I am told that people are not interested in local government, which is why there is so little of all this in the news. People need to know what is happening and that it is local government that empties the bins, sweeps the streets, houses those without homes, deals with planning, affordable housing, roads, education, social care, etc. The list goes on and these are just the statutory duties, it does a lot more besides. Local Government is at the front line and directly affects people’s lives.

In the South Hams we live in a 2 tier system. There is Devon County Council that deals with roads, education, social care… and South Hams District Council that deals with the rest for which it gets just 8% of your Council Tax. Your District Council is about as efficient as it gets and shares officers with West Devon Borough Council.

What is being proposed is we become a so called Unitary, so there is just one tier. But this mammoth will sit under a new even bigger tier, a so called Strategic Authority. Why make these very expensive changes? It is in the name of Devolution and giving more powers to local areas. We are told it will make local government more efficient and able to meet the needs of its area. But will it?

We only need to look to our neighbour Cornwall. It has been a Unitary since 2009. It now has debts of £1.3bn. It is very similar to Devon, being largely rural with a few urban centres. Somerset Unitary has debts of about £790M. Evidently becoming a unitary in a rural area is not the panacea suggested.

There is also the small matter of local democracy and representation.

I am a South Hams District Councilor and I represent just over 2100 people of voting age, or about 2300 all told and just over 1000 households. They voted me in to represent them … and they keep me busy. The range of issues and problems is huge. I see my role as helping people to navigate the bureaucracy of local government and the planning system, to get help where I can and to act as an advocate where appropriate. My role also involves me in a number of projects and campaigns.

Its a full time job, if you do it properly, and as an Executive member is currently remunerated at less than £6 ph, based on on a 35hr week. So half the minimum wage. The reality is it is a lot lot less than that. You don’t get yourself elected for the money, you do it because you want to help people and communities and to work to improve lives (and you can afford to, which is another big issue). I know that all my colleagues, of whatever political colour, feel the same way.

It is a god awful mess

The Cornwall Unitary has about 6500 residents for each of its 87 Councilors. So, if this is replicated here, any one councilor will need to deal with about 3 times the case load that I currently do, if they are going to provide the same level of service to their communities. I don’t think that is reasonable or doable. What will happen is people will get a reduced service and less democratic accountability.

But even if one is prepared to suspend one’s disbelief over Unitaries, the white paper, published just a few days before Christmas, has managed to seed a chaotic hue and cry by directing Local Authorities to work together positively and to come up with proposals. I can only think that Angela Rayner and her colleagues are having a laugh.

What has happened is it has created an unseemly mosh pit of squabbling political egos each vying for bigger territories or independence. So we have: Exeter City Council wanting to be a Unitary, which is just silly; Devon County Council wanting to take over everything and to hell with the inconvenience of elections; Plymouth being inscrutable while pulling strings; Cornwall rather predictably not wanting to be lumped into a Strategic Authority with Devon … and the District Councils looking on without the faintest clue as to how the next couple of years will unfold. It is a god awful mess.

The Cabinet may also be sitting around giggling about the new planning rules imposed just days before the white paper, and with immediate effect, dropping overworked and under resourced planning authorities, like South Hams District Council, well and truly in the poo.

And then just a day before the Christmas break, the government sends a Christmas cracker joke… your District Council is told it will have a £300k reduction in funding this coming financial year, having already been told the funding called the Rural Services Delivery Grant was ending and was being re-purposed, whatever that means, and the Funding Guarantee Grant would be 0%, so zilch money there. All this, dumped on the Council when it is half way through its annual torture of trying to set a budget for the coming year.

We seem to be led by a Cabinet of Eeyores, that have little or no insight into the challenges of rural areas. It is very disappointing. It now feels like we are living in a Christmas Special edition of Carry On Councils.

There is huge scope to reform local government, not least they way it is funded, which has been chaotic at best. What about reforming Council Tax? There are many opportunities for integrating service provision, sharing resources and other plans that are already underway or being considered. This upheaval will cost 10’s of millions of tax payer’s money, derail initiatives already in train and become a huge distraction for several years to come, and with only the faintest hope it will actually achieve anything.

Devolution is just a nostrum that has been given an importance there is little evidence to support. Call me cynical, but one wonders if it is not just a way for central government to avoid any blame… “nothing to do with us guv, that was a devolved decision”.”

Do you agree or disagree with John McKays’ view? Feel free to comment below.