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 in a variety of media 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 has been challenged on a

number of occasions.  The claim 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 that

this claim can really be made.

All councillors, of course, aim to minimise the burden of

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 and 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.  In fact 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