Consultation on single council

West Devon Borough and South Hams District Council launched a consultation in August to ask residents and businesses what they thought of a proposal to set up a single new council to cover both the areas currently served by the two authorities. The consultation period came to an end on 8 October and the findings will now be reviewed.

The proposal for a single council was put forward to help address a predicted 2020 budget gap of £1.9 million, which has been brought about by successive reductions in Central Government funding since 2010.

Both authorities already share one workforce and together save the tax payer £6million in operating costs. However, since they first shared a Chief Executive in 2007, the two authorities have kept the two political structures completely separate. Each council currently has 31 elected members, a Leader, a Deputy Leader, a separate set of accounts and separate council meetings.

Deputy Leader of West Devon Borough Council, Cllr Lois Samuel said: "The reality is that the councils find themselves in a financial situation with decreasing government funding and this is a logical next step from the shared services and our Transformation 18 programme."