Lib Dems Support Devon Local Government Changes

12.31.19pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 14th Jul 2008

Devon County Council's Lib Dem group have given 100% support for the boundary committees preferred recommendation for Devon. The single Devon bid, based on the present county council area with 28 Market Town and Exeter City boards.

This was originally proposed by DCC and supported by both the Lib Dem and Tory council groups and opposed by Labour. All were against the subsidiary idea included within the report of creating two Unitary councils out of the existing area including one based on Exmouth and Exeter and the other to include the rural area with Barnstaple as its largest town.

The proposal and recommendation will prevent the break up of our County and its strong identity. It will also avert unnecessary disruption and costs caused by breaking up existing countywide services and be big enough to ensure that the most expensive services such as education, social services and roads have large county budgets to support them. By reducing the number of councils and chief officers, cutting bureaucracy and ending the unnecessary duplication of services (such as having eight different refuse collection services and a separate waste disposal service) it will release savings to spend on improving support for local communities.

Devon County Council already provides 85% of local government services to communities throughout Devon so it won't be a big change for a county unitary council to take on the remaining 15%. The County Council believes the new Unitary Council should be close to the people and communities it serves and able to respond to local needs.

The proposed local Community Boards will be made up of elected unitary councillors in areas based on each of Devon's 28 towns and their surrounding parishes. These unitary councillors would work alongside the elected councillors from Town and Parish Councils in their areas, and would also be advised and supported by non-voting representatives from the police, health service, voluntary sector, education and the business community to make sure the Unitary Council is meeting local priorities. They would have special budgets to spend on the community and be given responsibility for commissioning local services.