I FELT it important to clarify some of the points that Cllr Brian Trew made in his letter to the Times last week.

Cllr Trew is incorrect when he says we have only been cost cutting in the last two years. It is far longer than that. During the last ten years alone, the council has saved £5.2 million — £2.8 million of this saving is from sharing our services with South Hams District Council which began in 2007.

Even though we have nationally been at the forefront of sharing services, we have not rested on our laurels.

We are now developing transformation plans to introduce a new way of working in 2015, made possible by new technology which wasn't tried and tested five years ago. This will save the council £1.3 million every year, not £3.5 million as quoted by Cllr Trew.

Over the last four years, West Devon has seen its Government funding cut dramatically by £1.9 million on a net budget of around £8 million. Staffing numbers have been reduced from 133 (2009/10) to 110 currently. We have weathered this storm without cutting key front line services.

Cllr Trew mentions the former Focus site in Tavistock. We took the action we did in the best interests of our local businesses to protect the vitality of the town centre based on an independent retail study. At the time, Tesco had not put in a planning application for a store there. As always, our planning committee will now consider this application on its merits.

Cllr Trew refers to our Kilworthy Park offices as a 'White Elephant'. We accept that our rental income may not have been as high as forecast but since the business units were completed we have seen one of the worst economic recessions for generations — they are now fully let. We made a business decision to sell our old Okehampton offices and move in to the town centre. The proceeds of the sale helped pay towards extending our Tavistock offices and provide much needed business units and an NHS dentist. The rental income from the business units and the efficiency savings made by consolidating our offices on one site are financing the rest — not the council tax payer as Cllr Trew suggests.

Following our transformation plans, Kilworthy Park will operate as normal, retaining its reception and civic areas. Officers will work at 'hot' desks within the office and we plan to let out the further additional space.

Cllr Trew concludes that the council has been mismanaged over the years. Clearly, it's quite the opposite. Only last year, we were praised by auditors Grant Thornton for our financial performance and strategic planning — an accolade very few councils achieve.

Cllr Philip Sanders,

Leader, West Devon Borough Council

IT is encouraging to see so many recent letters in the Times regarding the various services of the borough council — albeit somewhat challenging in their content. This interest in the council's activities must be seen as a healthy trend.

I would particularly like to respond to Cllr Trew's letter in last week's edition questioning why the savings now being proposed by the borough council could not have been made earlier. Having supported the council's performance over many years I do not believe the council could have moved much sooner as the systems and technology being proposed were just not available. I certainly do not favour the pioneering approach when dealing with new technology as arrows in the backside can be very painful.

I actually worry about the pace of change that is being proposed by the council but I accept that this is being forced on us by the phased government grant reductions. I am also concerned that the new method of working will only suit those who use technology and residents relying on telephone and face-to-face dealings with the council will inevitably suffer with the dramatic reduction in staffing.

Cllr Trew's comments regarding council tax increases to generate additional finances are simply wrong, as West Devon's increases for many years have barely addressed inflationary factors. I do however have some sympathy with his comments regarding 'white elephants' and I have always approved of the principle that good government should be like the drains — effective but unobtrusive. How I wish our Westminster colleagues would adopt this approach!

Robin Musgrave

WDBC Member for the Bere Peninsula