Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Chief Executive.

The Lord Mayor invited the Chief Executive to present the report, which she did making the following statement:

“Thank you Lord Mayor.

The report before Members this evening is the Council's final draft proposal for Local Government Reorganisation - the culmination of months of detailed work, evidence-gathering, engagement, modelling, and refinement.

It has been shaped by Members across this chamber, the voices of our residents, partners, neighbouring Parish Councils and businesses and it must be submitted by the end of Friday.

Our Case for Change

We know that local government is under pressure across the country and Devon is not immune to this. Demand for services and expectations from residents is growing, rising, costs are increasing, and the geography of our county- large, mostly rural with dispersed populations, and with three urban centres - makes delivering consistent, high-quality responsive services more challenging every year.

Councils have done their best within the two-tier system created in the 1970s but we can all recognise that this system is no longer suited to the scale of the challenges we face today.

Alongside that, Exeter, Plymouth and Torbay - our three principal urban areas in Devon - are constrained by boundaries that no longer reflect how residents live their lives and access council services and acts as a constraint to economic growth which could benefit the county.

Our draft submission seeks to address those challenges.

It meets the government's six criteria by:

1)     Firstly, proposing a single tier of local government – four unitary councils instead of the current 11 councils;

2)     it sets put that each proposed council is of an appropriate size to provide financial resilience, with sustainable tax bases and a model that pays back the costs of transition within three years;

3)     it identifies the approach and principles for delivering high-quality, sustainable services, designed around both urban and rural needs, with a specific focus on those crucial services of Adult Social Care and Children’s Services and services for children and young people who need support for special education needs and disabilities (SEND);

4)     the submission has been developed in collaboration with other Devon Councils, and in particular, Plymouth and Torbay Councils and also through extensive listening to local views;

5)     it supports devolution, creating balanced authorities ready to drive growth, the skills agenda, enhance delivery of housing and infrastructure and ensure that the needs of Devon’s urban, rural and coastal areas are considered equally and alongside each other with the four councils being principal authorities in the current combined authority or a future strategic mayoral authority; and the final criterion,

6)     the submission enhances local engagement and influence in decision-making, through neighbourhood area committees and an enhanced relationship between upper tier authorities and parish and town councils.

l'd like to address two significant issues presented for the first time formally tomembers in the report. One is the number of councils being proposed in our submission and the second is the reference to ‘a baseline proposal’ and a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 101