Local Government Reorganisation
Residents should be aware that Central Government has expressed a desire to simplify Local Government by reducing the number of tiers currently in place e.g. Devon County Council, South Hams District Council and Bickleigh Parish Council. Essentially they wish to create a number of larger Unitary Authorities by combining several of the smaller ones. All were required to submit outline proposals to the Government Minister on how they would manage this process.Devon County Council submitted a number of options, 2 examples of which are:
2 Unitary Authorities –
1. Plymouth (with existing boundaries)
2. Devon (all other District and City Councils)
2 Unitary Authorities –
1. South Devon (Plymouth, Teignbridge, South Hams, Torbay)
2. North Devon (Exeter, East/North/West/Mid Devon, Torridge)
South Hams District Council
Proposed a 1:4:5 solution, this being:
1 – Plymouth City Council
4 – Southern Devon comprising – South Hams, West Devon, Teignbridge, Torbay
5 – Exeter and Northern Devon comprising – North/Mid/East Devon, Torridge, Exeter City
Plymouth City Council
Wish to remain a Unitary Authority (current status) but in order to increase the number of residents within their boundary (a requirement of Central Government), they have proposed to take over 13 Parish and Town Councils which surround the current City boundary, this includes Bickleigh Parish.
Central Government have reviewed the initial proposals submitted and requested further work done by the above to develop their ideas and resubmit later in the year for further consideration. In the meantime, each of the above will no doubt be in contact in order to put forward their proposals and state their case to the general public on how it would work under each proposal.
At this stage it must be said that we do not have any say in how this will go but from a Bickleigh Parish Council perspective, we are engaging with the other Parish/Town Councils that Plymouth wish to take over to discuss how we can approach this. Discussions will also be had with Devon and South Hams on their proposals. We are also talking regularly with our Local MP, Rebecca Smith, who also keeps us updated with the chat from Westminster.