AROUND 20 different 'concepts' have been received by the Boundary Committee in response to proposals to give Devon a unitary organisation of local government to replace the current two tier county/district council system. This includes one by West Devon Borough Council which puts forward a South Devon and Dartmoor Unitary authority covering the three geographic areas of West Devon, South Hams and Teignbridge districts. Such an authority, covering a population of 260,000 people would be responsible for providing education, social services, emptying the bins and other vital services. The Boundary Committee, an independent body of lay people, has to put forward its recommendation for Devon to Secretary of State for Local Government Hazel Blears by December 31. The borough council, along with other local councils and stakeholders, has already been asked a number of supplementary questions by the committee to its submitted concept. Council representatives met those from the Boundary Committee last week to clarify some of their responses. Conservative Cllr James McInnes, the leader of West Devon Borough Council, said he was told by the committee that the idea for a unitary authority was not to look for the cheapest option for providing local government but a way to provide the best local services. Cllr McInnes is backing his council's concept for a a South Devon and Dartmoor Unitary authority and said it would have been 'a huge injustice to our residents and businesses if we didn't raise our voice'. He feels strongly that West Devon's concept puts 'rural villages and market towns at its heart'. Cllr McInnes said South Hams and West Devon have put forward a plan that would best serve the local population and those of the small towns and villages. He said: When we look countywide and a unitary authority for a population of 750,000, the only other unitary authority of that size would be Birmingham, which as an urban area has very different demands to our rural needs. 'A Northern unitary authority and Eastern Unitary authority along with South Devon and Dartmoor would be the most successful. If Plymouth expanded its authority it could go as far up as Lydford, and that would be dreadful for such a rural area.' But a Conservative branch in West Devon takes a different view. In a letter to the Times Mary Vick, the chairman of the Okehampton branch of the Central Devon Conservative Association, said: 'We consider that the only viable proposal is that of Devon County Council to have three unitary authorities — Plymouth, Torbay and the rest of Devon. A cost analysis of the actual split up of Devon and consequent possible duplication of chief executive and other posts and administration costs would, in our opinion, be excessive in any case, she wrote. 'What are the benefits and costs? Who pays?' Mrs Vick, a former mayor of Okehampton, added: 'We consider this a retrograde step and totally resist the many other concepts of dividing Devon into several unitary authorities.' The committee is expected to come back with possibly one or possibly two preferred options to put to the Government and these will go out to public consultation from July 7 to the end of September. Once the Secretary of State has received the committee's recommendation it is then up to the Government whether it agrees with the chosen concept, rejects it, implements an amalgam of concepts or puts forward its own proposals.
