Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors: N Bradshaw (online), S Chenore (online), P Colthorpe (online), A Cuddy, G DuChesne (online), B Fish, R Gilmour, L J Kennedy (online), F Letch, N Letch, S Robinson and N Woollatt (online).

To record any interests on agenda matters.

Members were reminded of the need to declare any interests when appropriate.

None were declared under this item.

The Chair advised Council Members that he would add 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 statement should be specifically in relation to the sole item of business contained in this Extraordinary Council meeting.

Goff Welchman

The Council should be celebrating today, as he believed he was once on the same side of the fence as all of the Members.

Angela Rayner’s ghastly devolution proposals were anything but that pure stalinism in all but name, right down to sending in Government apparatchiks to take control, if things did not go according to their dogma.

One of the strongest pillars of Local Government democracy was the right of taxpayers, like him, to physically attend Council meetings, and ask public questions concerning all matters of Council business, while face-to-face with Officers and the Councillors they elected to office.

He realises that this administration, in spite of its claims for openness and transparency, had done its best to make that more difficult, restricting challenges to responses, and would have made it even more difficult, had it not been for strong opposition by members of the public at specific meetings.

However, at the moment still had that right.

Members of the public could easily get to this Councils local meetings, park free of charge nearby, have their say, and get home quickly again afterwards.

Under Komrad Rayner’s plan, their Local Government headquarters would be many miles away, probably in a city centre with difficult rush-hour access, and limited parking at exorbitant prices. Public attendance and interrogation would become impractical for all but those living close by.

This was probably their desired aim. They intend to ride rough-shod over any local opposition to their schemes.

Question 1:

Would this Council vigorously oppose the devolution proposals?

Question 2:

If the answer to question one was yes, would the objections specifically mention the points concerning public questions, in person, face-to-face, being a crucial element of our democracy?

Question 3:

If the answer to question one was no, why not?”

The Chair advised that the questions would be answered as part of the debate at the next item on the agenda.

The Council had before it a report from the Leader of the Council on the latest situation with regards to the devolution and reorganisation debates as instigated by the English Devolution White Paper and Minister’s letter to the Leader prior to Christmas.

The Leader of the Council outlined the contents of the report on the Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation.

• His report was self-explanatory and outlined the position shared by all District Councils in Devon but there were some points he wished to clarify after the last Full Council meeting in December 2024.
• To be clear he was not against change, nor against genuine devolution and bringing more money and powers to important parts of the Country. 
• Some Members may know that he had a fulltime job as a Continuous Improvement Manager, and part of that involved improving services and delivering substantial savings to his employer.  He oversees delivering transformative change every day.  So, he understood all too well that this was not an easy task, with every project requiring substantial planning, consultation, and evidence before acting. 
• The Leader believed that the Government White Paper set out a policy of a compulsory move to a unitary authority.
• The Leader believed that if this Council did not get on the  fast track to unitary, they would not be ‘left behind’ as had been claimed.   This was because this Council was already well on the way to meaningful devolution, due to start delivering in just five weeks’ time.
• The County administration were running scared of facing the public after years of mismanagement and a disastrous set of election results last year – 100% yes.  In private, so do they.
• Councils who were being considered for the first stage were areas which had already looked at and considered devolution. Those were areas where there was joined up cooperation and working between Districts and County and where there were already consideration of the makeup of a new Unitary area.  Those were areas that were already on their path to regional devolution and had established plans for reorganisation.
• Devon County Council had done nothing and there was no plan or joined up thinking. 
• Today Devon County Council published their report and recommendations for their Extraordinary Council meeting to take place on Thursday 9 January 2025.  It also contained nothing.  It was made to be clear they intended the Governments wished to see Labour regional Mayors as a means to delay elections and disenfranchise 1 million residents of our County to suit their political goals, not democratic ones.  It was damning that you could replace the word Devon in the entire report and it could apply to any County Council anywhere in England.  There were no details on how any of the “plans”  could be delivered, because there were no plans. 
• He quoted from the report of Devon County Council “it was noted also that the Council was not committing to any specific form of reorganisation, but it had a very tight timetable to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 271.