AS chief executive of West Devon Borough Council, my role includes providing impartial advice to the elected councillors to enable them to make decisions in the best interests of the borough. Reading last week's edition I felt it time to break my rule of leaving the politicians to be the public face of the council in order to bring some objectivity and to ensure the debate is based on the facts.

The root of the High Court challenge on the Focus site goes back to when planning was initially granted in 2007. A condition was applied then to ensure no food retail trade from the store. In July 2011, the approval was varied, innocuously we thought at the time, simply to enable alterations to elevations, including new shop frontage and associated works. Later in 2011, we found that elsewhere in the country it had been determined that planning variations of this type led to a new chapter in the planning history of the building and we had, in effect, lost control of the future use of the site. Several other councils found themselves in the same boat.

We were left with three options – accept the position; revoke the application and compensate the owner to the tune of £500k or do as we did, risking up to £50k in the High Court. In May 2012, councillors took a measured risk to protect the town centre knowing that £50k would be at stake. The only reason that an individual councillor was named on the High Court action was that there was no other way for the council to proceed.

Councillors were fully aware that the £50k was at greater risk because of the delay in bringing the proceedings but an important piece of evidence – the retail study – was not available until May 2012. To quote from it: 'forecasts do not support the capacity for a new larger format superstore'. Had it not, officers would have advised councillors not to proceed.

Turning to the separate issue of the council tax increase, your page 12 article headlined 'MP presses Government for fairer rural funding' sets out some challenging figures. West Devon receives £640k a year less than the Government itself says we need. By 2016, we will have to strip out £1.4m from our £7.5m net budget on top of the £1.4m we have saved in the last three years. The council tax increase – 7p per week at Band D – generates £70k year-on-year which will help bridge the gap. The difference will have to come either from reducing services, greater efficiency or generating more income.

We are a national example of how to run good quality services efficiently and in the top bracket for our financial management, so says our external auditor.

We roll our sleeves up and work even harder to protect front line services whilst taking out a fifth of the budget over the next three years, understanding that the public service cake is getting smaller for everybody, but our residents are seriously disadvantaged, getting a lower level of services at a higher cost compared to our urban neighbours.

To return to where I started, we will be sitting down with councillors to see what we can learn from the Focus case. The public's views will be really helpful to us and I welcome the debate in this paper. £50k spent in an attempt to protect the viability of the town centre is a significant sum. A £2.5m gap comparing the Government's own assessment of our need against the sum we will get in grant is where we need to focus beyond Focus.

Richard Sheard

Shared Chief Executive

West Devon Borough Council and South Hams District Council