WEST Devon borough councillors last week gave their commitment to 'localism' and delivering community empowerment — but stressed at a meeting that it did not necessarily mean parish and town councils taking over services.

At a meeting of the council's community services committee it was made clear that the devolvement of services such as grass cutting, through to leisure centre management, would only occur if it was a 'win, win, win' situation for the borough, parish council and the community.

The 'West Devon Localism Strategy' was accepted by committee members but it was felt that for many small parish councils, taking on extra services was just not an option. There were also fears that communities would be 'taxed twice' for their services.

Corporate director Alan Robinson said the Localisation Model was flexible and at the very least would enable better communication between the borough council and town and parish councils.

He said there was the opportunity to influence the service within existing resources, raise additional money locally for an enhanced service, investigate the feasibility of contractual arrangements to deliver the service locally or investigate the feasibility of delegating services to town or parish councils.

'The localism strategy is a mechanism to find out what communities want,' said Mr Robinson.

'The only outcome from the surgeries we are planning to hold might be a better understanding — there is no desire to pass services on, it's just a way to facilitate devolvement if that is what communities want.

'We might find out that grass cutting should be done at the end of May in preparation for the village fete and not the end of June, or that the community wants six cuts a year instead of four and will raise the money to do it.

'The parish or town might want to take the grass cutting on itself and do it cheaper.'

Cllr Alison Clish-Green said the public toilets at Princetown were a case in point where the parish council had taken on the running of the facility, made a small charge to use them and it was 'a win, win' situation.

Cllr Tony Leach said it was the hearts and mind of the public that the council needed to get through to, but that was difficult when many people remembered the grass being cut 12 times a year.

'We are now down to six or four cuts a year and when a parish is told that if it wants ten it will have to pay the extra itself, people say "hang on, my taxes pay for that" and it looks like double taxation.'

Cllr Bill Cann agreed: 'We have a shining example in South Zeal where we have taken over the public toilets from West Devon.

'West Devon rates have not gone down yet it is costing the parish £1,600 to run the toilets — that is paying twice in my book.'

Cllr Mike Benson said it was obvious that some councillors did not believe in localism, but it was about getting the best for your community and engagement between borough and parish councils.

In Bere Alston, the parish council managed its own grass cutting which worked well, he said.

Cllr Mandy Ewings said the localism strategy was a good idea and could be used very effectively in strategic planning with everyone working together, but reassurance about the flexibility of it was key especially when talking to smaller parish councils.