Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors: M Binks, R Gilmour, F Letch, N Letch and L Taylor.

To record any interests on agenda matters.

(All Members of the Council have been granted a dispensation to allow them to speak and vote in any debate on any matter that related to devolution or Local Government reorganisation in Devon)

The Chair reminded those present that all Members of the Council had been granted a dispensation to allow them to speak and vote in any debate on any matter that related to devolution or Local Government reorganisation in Devon.

The Chair advised Council Members that he would allow Public Question Time before the next agenda item using his constitutional discretion as Chair.

He reminded members of the public that their questions and or statements should be specifically in relation to the sole item of business contained in this Extraordinary Council meeting.

The Chair of the Council may be minded to allow requests using his constitutional discretion as Chair at this meeting.

Members of the public are asked to submit questions and/or statements by 5pm 3 clear working days in advance of the meeting as usual. You may register to speak without submitting a question and this must be done by 4pm the day before the meeting. Questions and/or statements received in advance may be answered as part of the debate at the meeting, but no written responses to questions will be provided. However, as per the constitution, there is to be no other business conducted at extraordinary council meetings, so if questions and/or statements are not in relation to the specific agenda item of this meeting the Chair will not permit the question. Questioners will be directed to the next regularly scheduled meeting of Council as appropriate.

Honorary Alderman Mel Lucas

Thank you for allowing me to have a few moments of your time this evening.

You will be far more privy than I as to what you have in front of you tonight and what you're going to discuss and how you're going to discuss this in your decision. Can I, as a member of the public, an ex Member of this particular Council and a Parish Councillor for over 26 years combined, put my thoughts to you.

I must express my opinions as I have always done in the past. We live, or so I am led to believe in the democracy. Over the last few weeks, we have seen many scenes that we have no longer any right to call democratic in any shape or form and the present organisation in Westminster is trying to do the same thing with this.

I believe fervently in democracy and that is why I served my community for as long as I did without any thought of monetary or any other type of reward. I just served them because I wanted to serve them and I hope all you Councillors feel the same as I do.

What is in front of you today takes away that right, it will take away your right to listen to the people whom you represent and who have given you the right to ask questions on their behalf. Some of those people will not do what I'm doing this evening because they don’t have the courage to do it. Councillors, you know that you represent the people who put you where you are today. Those people look upon you as the conduit between them, the Parish Council and Mid Devon, who then in turn look towards the County Council. I would hope that after I've spoken you'll see where I come from in the context that I am fearful that this is yet another little chip away of the democracy that we so dearly love.

I love it fervently.

I would have no hesitation in telling you now that if push came to shove, then I would be pushing for all my worth to make sure that my people, whom I represented, are still going to be heard.

Mid Devon District Council is peculiar in the fact that it was sprung from a borough. We then became a District Council and it was well worth it. We made mistakes. We are human. We have made errors in the past. We learn hopefully from those errors. If this is allowed to go through without any fight, then we are letting our people who are our neighbours, our friends, our colleagues at work, or whomever, we are letting them down, we need you to still be here next year, the year after and the year after that, because in all seriousness, the gap between the little people and the people in power is growing day by day, and if we don't make a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 294.

Council will be aware of the stated intention from government to ‘simplify’ local government structures by requiring two-tier areas (and adjacent or smaller unitaries) to reorganise into unitary structures. Invitations for proposals for local government reorganisation have been sent to all Leaders of councils in areas affected, with the deadline for responses due later this year; before 28^th November 2025. However, a submission to government on our initial plan is required before 21^st March. Following confirmation of the intended timeline, the process for Devon sees the government indicating its intention to receive proposals by the 28^th November, to consult on viable options in early 2026 and then to make a final decision in summer 2026 on what the best form of local government for Devon should be.

This is a process that has not been initiated by the councils of Devon, nor its people. Our challenge now is to recognise the intent of central government and seek to secure the best possible outcome for our communities. Councils are more than just delivery arms or agents of central government. While there will be many views on the viability or sensibility of such enforced changes, our aim should be to seek that we retain, as far as is possible, some form of connection to local place, distinctiveness and identity within any new councils for Devon and, ultimately, that we keep the ‘local’ in local government.

It is recommended that the Council:

1.      Notes the importance of keeping the public informed on this process that central government has mandated of us

2.      Recognises the excellent collaboration across most of the councils in Devon and hopes that this spirit continues over the coming months with a view to effective partnership working and sharing the resource requirements of developing the full proposal

3.      Ensures that meaningful and substantial public engagement and consultation takes place before the submission of any proposal in November

4.      Supports the submission to government of an initial plan for the 21^st March deadline outlining the current proposal, which would potentially see an enlarged Plymouth City area with the remaining county geography split in two – achieving the government’s requirement of serving approximately 500k population in these two new areas. Such a proposal would see Devon’s existing 11 councils reduced to 3; reported locally as the 1,5,4 proposal  

5.      Tasks the Leader and Chief Executive with ensuring the best possible submission is presented to government and that any revisions or amendments continue to reflect the districts’ best interests; and

6.      Writes immediately to Devon County Council to request that they consider submitting this majority-supported proposal as one of the options they intend to look at in future, seeking to work with the new administration after May’s elections to achieve better alignment between the efforts of all councils in Devon as we work up full and final proposals.

The Council had before it background information and recommendations in relation to Local Government Reorganisation in Devon.

The Leader, who had been unable to attend the meeting in person due to work commitments, had asked the Cabinet Member for Housing and Property Services to read out a statement on his behalf:

“Councillors, firstly, my apologies for not being with you this evening at another Extraordinary Council meeting to discuss Local Government Reorganisation.

I leave you tonight in the very capable hands of my two deputies, Councillor Jane Lock and Councillor Simon Clist. Since the announcement by central government in December, things have been moving at speed with the number of meetings I am attending with other local leaders of the Devon District’s, City, Unitary and County Council stacking up.

I want to make it quite clear from the outset that I do not support the move towards unitary and firmly believe that it will impact our resident’s representation and heap heavy responsibility on Councillors.
For example currently our individual Councillors represent areas of around 1600 electors and county councillors, around 11,000. Under the reorganisation, one Councillor will represent an area of approximately 5000 electors. That may not seem too bad from the outset, but as a Councillor you will have to deal with issues that you currently face, including social housing, waste collections our vital leisure services, planning applications, licencing and much much more. However, you will also have to deal with issues around the state of our roads, schools, special educational needs, adult social care,
public transport and again much much more.

5000 electors might not seem too bad in urban areas and large towns, but how does that impact our rural areas, of which most of Mid Devon is?
Let me put this into perspective. That would be one Councillor covering my own ward of Bradninch, Silverton and Cadbury plus all the small hamlets and communities in between. Each with their own individual needs and issues.
This will spell the end of local representation, the Councillor you speak to in the street daily or at local events, at the church, or even down at the local pub.

I have prided myself on being a Councillor with a young family and a full time job. Yes, I'm very busy but I can still be a local Councillor. This administration has made the Council more family friendly with more evening meetings than ever before, and this allows the Council to be far more representative of the residents we serve. Being a local representative should not just be for the retired, self-employed, or the wealthy - it should be a range of individuals and backgrounds. Under a unitary regime it will be daytime meetings and lengthy travelling to meetings. It will also be difficult for the public to attend meetings which is of course a vital part of democracy.

Despite our objections to reorganisation, the current Government have their own ideas and have insisted that initial plans should be put  ...  view the full minutes text for item 295.