PAGE 11 of last week's Times carried an unlabelled
advertisement on behalf of Devon County Council, 'Let's
keep Devon united!'.
It is presumed similar advertisements are being placed all
over the county at significant cost to us all. We have
spoken to many people who consider this use of public
funds to promote a particular desired outcome to the
current consultation is highly questionable.
Within the text are claims from Cllr Greenslade and his
colleagues which are simply inaccurate.
The advert asserts that 85% of our services are provided
by the county council and only 15% by district councils,
such as West Devon Borough.
This claim is inaccurate and is based on the total level of
revenue expenditure on local government services in
Devon which is of the order of £1.4 billion. The real ratio
is nearer 73/27 but when the direct grant to schools
which amounts to £300 million (over which DCC has no
discretion), is discounted the actual split is more like
57/43.
This false 85% assertion is being made to convince the
public that subsuming district based services such as
development control, housing, economic development
and environmental protection services is a simple and
inconsequential transfer of functions.
The reality is very different. While the cost of providing
district based services is overshadowed by greater
expenditure on education and social services, it is very
often the district based services that a greater proportion
of the general public need to use regularly and access
locally, eg refuse and recycling.
DCC also claim a unitary Devon will 'keep council tax
down'.
In view of the fact that the financial modelling of the
proposals and any certainty of the costs of a unitary
Devon is still yet to be completed, it beggars belief this
claim can really be made.
All councillors aim to minimise council tax. The problem is
not with the financial efficiency and performance of
individual authorities but with the system of council tax
itself. It is the government that effectively holds the whip
hand on council tax levels since it calculates and sets the
level of local government grant, then consistently adds
new duties on local authorities which it fails to fully fund,
eg concessionary bus fares.
The advertisement claims most decisions taken by Devon
County Council are taken 'by local members, officers and
school governing bodies'.
This conveniently side steps the fact that all the key
decisions are taken by the DCC executive of only a few
members. The county council's own proposal for a
unitary Devon and adopted by the Boundary Committee as
its preferred option has never actually been discussed by
all the county members.
This is likely to be the way of the future. Does that sound
like a reasonable and accessible democratic process to
your readers?
Cllr James McInnes, leader, West Devon Borough Council
Cllr Margaret Garton, deputy leader