DEVON'S potential move to a unitary authority would 'rip the county up and condemn the rural areas to increased isolation and neglect'.

That is the view taken by West Devon and Torridge MP Geoffrey Cox, regarding Devon's impending local government review decision.

Mr Cox warned that the Government may be about to push through the abolition of district and borough councils in Devon before the General Election, for the 'political fix' of an Exeter Unitary Authority and a 'rest of Devon unitary authority'.

He described the potential move as Labour's 'scorched earth' legacy for Devon, while setting up an unviable Exeter authority that the Boundary Committee had considered a second rate solution.

Mr Cox said it would be Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Exeter Labour MP Ben Bradshaw's final bequest to the people of Devon.

'It shows the contempt in which the Labour Government holds rural communities. They have simply no interest in rural interests or people. For them, Devon does not exist beyond the perimeters of the city.

'Fortunately, a Conservative Government will repeal the statutory instrument, which I fervently hope will prove to be the last piece of vanity publishing from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.'

The decision is likely to be placed before Parliament before the beginning of the General Election campaign. Mr Cox has previously described the drawn-out process as a 'fiasco' and urged the Government to abandon the idea.

'This whole painfully drawn-out process has been an unmitigated disaster, undermining morale, draining resources, preventing councils from moving forward with practical measures to improve services and making planning for the future impossible.

'If the Government decides to rip up the county of Devon, despite the near unanimous opposition of every interested party, it will be completely wrong-headed and runs entirely contrary to the overwhelming balance of the public opinion on the issue.

'Given that any Conservative Government would reverse these deeply damaging and unwanted changes, it is hard to come to any other conclusion than that Ministers are engaged in a "political fix" and deliberately intending to leave a "scorched earth" legacy to the people of Devon.'

The Boundary Committee's announcement on the future of local government is imminent.