Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Chief Executive.

Full Council considered the report at its meeting on 25 November 2025.

Agreed:

RESOLVED that Executive:

(1)   agrees the Draft Final Proposal for Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in Devon;

(2)   support the creation of four proposed new unitary councils (the geographic details of which were outlined in the report) as follows:

• a Unitary council for Exeter and surrounding parishes;
• a Unitary council for Plymouth and surrounding parishes;
• a Unitary council for Torbay and surrounding parishes; and
• a Unitary council for the Devon Coast and Countryside.

(3)   agree to a Joint Submission with Plymouth City Council to present a shared Executive Summary with the two individual proposals as appendices. Members noted that Plymouth City Council supported this approach and their Cabinet agreed a similar recommendation at their meeting on 24 November 2025.

(4)   grant delegated authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader, to make any further minor amendments to the LGR proposal prior to its submission to Government by 28 November 2025.

Reason for Decision: As set out in the report and as amended at the meeting.

The Executive received the report which set out Exeter City Council’s draft final submission to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) for Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in Devon and responded to the Government’s invitation for submissions and demonstrated compliance with Government’s criteria.

The report outlined resource implications, legal requirements, proposed geography, stakeholder engagement, and a timetable for implementation, with new Councils expected to be legally constituted on 1 April 2028.

The draft final submission was considered by a special meeting of the full Council on 25^th November 2025 and received almost unanimous support.

The Leader moved and Councillor Wright seconded two amendments to the recommendations to:

1)     amend recommendation 2.2 to change all instances of the word ‘adjacent’ to “surrounding.”  and

2)     add an additional recommendation, as follows:

·        2.3 That Executive agrees to a Joint Submission with Plymouth City Council to be presented as a shared Executive Summary with the two individual proposals as appendices. Members are asked to note that Plymouth City Council supported this approach and its Cabinet agreed a similar recommendation at their meeting on 24 November 2025.

The Chief Executive spoke to the report and advised that:

·        Members were familiar with the draft submission's content from the Council meeting on 25 November 2025, as well as through various briefings held over the past six weeks;

·        the Council had developed a draft proposal that addressed the government's criteria, which adhered to the Exeter principles and was legally compliant; and

·        that subject to the Executive's approval, a joint submission would be made with Plymouth City Council, featuring a joint executive summary with both Council's full proposals attached as appendices.

The Leader advised that the recommendations were seeking delegated authority to enable the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader to make further minor amendments to the proposal before it was submitted on the 28 November 2025.

The Leader noted the comments made at Council on 25 November for official recording, which he advised had been responded to at that meeting:

·        neighbourhood plans, including the current St. James plan, should be treated distinctly;

·        the city's status as a City of Sanctuary must be maintained to ensure it remained a safe city for everyone;

·        concerns were raised about the large size of the proposed coast and countryside areas;

·        a request was made to engage communities on how they wished to work together;

·        Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) needed to be central to the new authority, and not an afterthought;

·        there was a hope for enhanced SEND services that would work with communities and the third sector, to approach it differently.

The Leader referred to the requests from Members raised at the full Council and responded as follows:

Request for a youth council to be created

·        The request for a youth council to be created was noted and the ambition to strengthen the voice of young people in shaping services was shared. However, it would be for the future unitary authority to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 87