Peoples Republic of South Devon

Council boundary bugbears

July 7th, 2008

posted by Cptn

Devon County Council has welcomed the decision of the Boundary Committee that a single unitary council is the preferred option for the county. Geographically it will be exactly the same as the county council (you know excluding Plymouth and Torbay), but the cost of setting it up will be saved by spending money to make the change… apparently.

Oh, and we’ll get ‘neighbourhood empowerment schemes’, which sound to us like they used to be called local democracy. Goodbye, Teignbridge, South Hams, North Devon, Mid-Devon and East Devon Councils. But these are just proposals and there’s a 12-week consultation period.

“It is envisaged a neighbourhood empowerment scheme would create 28 Community Boards based around the 28 market towns of Devon, together with a City Board for Exeter with broader responsibilities,” says the notes in the press release.

“All structural change has a cost,” say the notes. “However, we are of the view that those costs would be minimised by the creation of a county-wide unitary in Devon.” Hmm, a county-wide unitary that is the same as the county council.

Sounds like a loud of hooey to us. Bureaucratic tinkering that is institution-based and not people/services based. Another erosion of grass-roots accountability.

This is a joint statement from Devon County Council, the Leader, Cllr Brian Greenslade, and Shadow Leader, Cllr John Hart, bare in mind that this ‘going forward’ is to create something that is the same as what’s already there:

“We welcome today’s announcement and are pleased that the Boundary Committee has seen strength in the argument put forward by a number of councils that a single unitary council for Devon is best placed to cut costs, deliver value for money and reduce the burden of Council Tax.

“We believe that keeping Devon strong and united will ensure the capacity to manage major services like education and social care for the elderly and to make the big investments needed to invigorate the County’s economy and prosperity as a whole.

“At the same time we think it also provides the best option for delivering high quality, responsive and accountable local services across the whole of Devon.

“We are particularly pleased that the Boundary Committee has emphasised the importance of devolving power to local communities via local Community Boards and a powerful City Board for Exeter which was such a major feature of our original submission.

“We recognise that this announcement is only one milestone on a long journey which will have a huge impact on our great County and we will now wish to involve all partners and stakeholders in planning for the future.”

“In the meantime, we pledge that the County Council will remain focussed on providing frontline services whilst we go through the remaining stages of the review.”

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