Report on local government reorganisation

24/07/25 @ 18:08

KNOWSTONE PARISH COUNCIL

REPORT ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT REORGANISATION

A Parish Forum was held at Brynsworthy on 9 July to update Parish Councillors on the progress of the Devolution/Local Government Reorganisation process.

Objectives

The aim is to do away with two-tier authorities (eg County and District) and replace them with Unitary Authorities which will ultimately become part of devolved Strategic (Mayoral) Authorities.

The Unitary Authorities should cover a population of between 350,00 and 500,000.

Among the objectives are: ‘Stronger community engagement and a genuine opportunity for neighbourhood empowerment’. This implies more responsibilities for Town & Parish Councils. (Though funds for Neighbourhood Planning have been cut.)

There’s a strong focus on children’s services and adult social services, which are the financial burdens that two-tier councils are currently wrestling with.

Options submitted

Options can be submitted but each existing council must ultimately only support one option.

• Plymouth is seeking to expand by 12 parishes in the South Hams and become a larger Unitary.

• Exeter wants to be ‘bigger’ but hasn’t specified how.

• Torbay has submitted three options including the 1:4:5 model.

• Devon County Council has submitted 5 options including the 1:4:5 (qv).

• The District Councils support the 1:4:5 option.

• North Devon supports the 1:4:5 model or any model creating a ‘Northern Devon’ unitary (eg ND+Tor+Mid or ND+Tor+Mid+West)

The 1:4:5 Option

Timescale

• Options were submitted by end March. (No substantive feedback received.)

• Full proposals to be submitted by 28 November (2025).