Welcome to the West Devon Borough Council website.

The Minister for Local Government, Rosie Winterton, announced last week (Wednesday Feb 10) that proposals for a Devon-wide unitary council have been scrapped in favour of an Exeter unitary on the existing city boundary. Local government in the rest of Devon - including West Devon Borough Council - will be left as it is.

Just over two years ago, the Boundary Committee was asked by the government to carry out a review of local government in Devon after the Secretary of State initially rejected Exeter's bid to become a unitary authority saying it was 'financially unviable.'

Following its review, the Boundary Committee recommended to the government in December that Devon's 750,000 residents should be governed by a single unitary council with Plymouth and Torbay's unitary boundaries remaining the same.
The advice was made even though two public consultations run by the Boundary Committee showed more than 60% of those who responded were against any changes.

Miss Winterton announced that the government had dropped the Boundary Committee's recommendation in favour of the original Exeter unitary bid which had previously been rejected. She added that a unitary Exeter would be better placed to deliver services, jobs and economic growth.

Cllr McInnes said that he believed the decision was made to support Exeter Labour MP Ben Bradshaw.

Cllr McInnes said: "The Government is carving up Devon for its own political gain which will fracture the county irrevocably. This is a tragedy for Devon.

"The former Secretary of State Hazel Blears told us just over two years ago that a unitary Exeter was financially unviable. If the figures didn't stack up for Exeter in 2007, they surely won't stack up now particularly as we are just emerging from one of the longest recessions in history.

"This entire process has wasted millions of pounds in public money and precious time for all the local authorities involved."

Last month (January), Cllr McInnes joined a delegation of Devon council leaders and MPs who met Miss Winterton at Westminster. They urged her to drop the review saying any changes would cause major upheaval for residents and cost millions of pounds to implement.

Cllr McInnes told the Minister that more than £1-million had already been saved in the last three years through shared working arrangements between South Hams District Council and West Devon.

Nationally, the Conservatives have said they will give a manifesto commitment to overturn any unitary plans made by the government.