Local Government Reorganisation
The Parish Council met with our local MP Martin Wrigley, our Devon County Councillor Alan Connett and our Teignbridge Councillor Gary Taylor in the Pavilion recently to discuss the proposed reorganisation of Local Government. As many will be aware this involves the abolition of Teignbridge District and Devon County and the creation of new larger groupings to create fewer Councils with greater responsibilities. In our area this means an end to confusion over who does what.
Of course, our main interest revolves around the future of Parish Councils. It became apparent that this question is still to be clarified but the feeling was that local Councils will remain and that rather then losing powers there is every possibility of extra responsibilities being passed down. This was apparent recently when Teignbridge looked at provision of public conveniences with an eye on closure of ours in Starcross.
The big question now is what grouping will DCC and TDC recommend to the Government. As you can imagine there are many possible variations. Teignbridge appear to favour a Council group comprising of Torbay, Teignbridge, South Hams and West Devon with the hub being in Torquay. The other two Council groups would be based on Plymouth and Exeter. This is known a the 1.4.5.Plan. An alternative is a two-group north-south split with Teignbridge based on Exeter and the northern group based on Plymouth. In the end the decision will fall on the Government.
At our Council Meeting on Tuesday 9th September we will have an open session starting at 7.30pm in the Pavilion to review our converstion with Messrs Wrigley, Connett and Taylor. We will try to answer questions from residents as best we can but we are not responsible for the plan and our knowledge is limited.
Following are links to .GOV, DCC and TDC where more information is available.
https://www.devon.gov.uk/devolution-and-lgr/getting-it-right-for-devon-interim-plan/
https://news.teignbridge.gov.uk/letter-to-minister-of-state-for-local-government-and-english-devolution/ CLICK ON INTERIM PLAN
JIM HOPPER 03/09/25
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