What is a unitary council?

A unitary council is responsible for all the services currently provided by the County Council such as education, social services, roads, public transport, disposal of waste, libraries, recycling centres and street lighting, and also all the services provided by District Councils such as local planning, rubbish collection and recycling, street cleaning, housing, and leisure.

What were the Secretary of State’s five criteria, or how will the Boundary Committee decide what to advise the Government?

Earlier this year the Boundary Committee invited councils in Devon to submit initial concepts” – outline proposals – for unitary local government.

They considered proposals that were to meet five key tests, which were:

They must:

• Be affordable – the cost of reorganisation must be paid for from savings within five years
• Provide value for money and fair access to services
• Provide strategic leadership
• Provide neighbourhood empowerment
• Have a broad cross section of support

The Committee considers that their draft proposal for Devon – a single Devon county authority to include all the authorities in the two-tier area – to be most likely to achieve these key tests.

The Committee has also said that they see some merit in a two-unitary pattern of local government in Devon – for an expanded Exeter and Exmouth authority comprising these two urban areas.  But the Committee say in their draft proposal that they are not persuaded that there is sufficient likelihood that it would better meet the outcomes set out in the five criteria than our draft proposal.”

I have heard from East Devon District Council that the County Council has massive debts and therefore should not be the lead authority with the Boundary Committee’s proposal for a single unitary Council for Devon

The assertion that the County Council is poor with money or in the red is absolute nonsense.

Devon County Council is consistently praised by the Audit Commission for our prudent use of resources and for the past 15 years has brought the County’s finances in under budget.

The County Council is currently responsible for 85% of all public services in Devon including vital services like schools, roads and the care of the elderly.  

We are also responsible for investing in Devon’s infrastructure to ensure our economy continues to grow which can be clearly seen by all to the east of Exeter.

Like any business or household, to pay for improvements we have to borrow. The County Council does have a £600m programme of capital investment to fund new schools, road schemes, recycling centres and a lot more but, as our accounts clearly show, this is more than offset by our assets which total more than £1.6 billion.

How many councillors will there be on your proposed County Unitary Council?

Ultimately, this will be a matter for the Boundary Committee to determine. However, the Government wants to see any new unitary council for Devon operational by April, 2010 and it is unlikely that a full electoral review can take place in that timescale. Therefore, as has happened in other parts of the country, interim arrangements will probably be made for the first term of the new council with perhaps elections held in 2009 to elect 2 Councillors for each of the current 62 County Council constituencies in Devon, creating a unitary council of 124 Members

Wouldn’t a single unitary council be too big and remote?

Actually, Devon County Council already provides 85% of local government services to communities throughout Devon so it wouldn’t be a big change for a county unitary council to take on the remaining 15%.

We believe the new Unitary Council should be close to the people and communities it serves and able to respond to local needs.

The Boundary Committee is proposing local Community Boards made up of elected unitary councillors in areas based on each of Devon’s 28 towns and their surrounding parishes, and an Exeter City Board with broader responsibilities. These unitary councillors would work alongside the elected councillors from Town and Parish Councils in their areas, and would also be advised and supported by non-voting representatives from the police, health service, voluntary sector, education and the business community to make sure the Unitary Council is meeting local priorities.

Community Boards would have special budgets to spend on the community and be given responsibility for commissioning local services.

Where will the money for these Community Boards come from?

There is potentially a lot of money to be saved from reducing the current bureaucracy created by having a County Council providing 85% of your local government services and another 8 District Councils providing the remaining 15% of those services.

A single unitary Council would not to have nine Chief Executives or eight different refuse collection services, or different computer systems.   It wouldn’t need to have as many councillors or all the administrative services and offices necessary to support nine different councils.
The concept is that those big savings could be used to pay for the cost of reorganisation and free up money to be spent by the Community Boards on local priorities.

What difference will we see?

Instead of there being one County Council and eight District Councils, each with their different ways of contacting them, residents would have one point of contact for all their council services.  There would no longer be any confusion bout ‘who provides which services’.

The quality of services should also improve.  A unitary Council would have the capacity to raise the performance of current District Council services to the level of the best in the county so that no longer will we have the lottery situation where, for example, some people get a very good recycling service or a very poor one depending on where they live.

Merging the County and District Councils into one new unitary council would generate enough savings to provide more money to spend on improving local communities – over and above what the new unitary council will spend in those communities on all the important public services such as schools, care for the elderly, roads, public transport, refuse collection, libraries and street lighting.

What will happen to District Council assets? e.g. car parks, industrial estates, housing etc?

All assets and liabilities of authorities which cease to exist will transfer to the successor authority.

One unitary council for the whole of Devon means that it will designate the whole of Devon as the Housing Authority under legislation.  How will this affect the allocation of council-owned properties to residents?

Under the Boundary Committee Proposals thenew Devon unitary authority, as the housing authority, will develop and operate housing policy in line with legislation; taking into account the need for people where possible to remain in their existing local communities, or to move to anotherlocality should their requirements change or should they choose. The priority of the new council will be to ensure the best use of existing housing stock to ensure that local people have local choice.

Where do you propose to have the headquarters/council offices of a new Devonwide unitary authority?

The location of their headquarters would be a decision for the new Devon unitary council - however it is highly likely that given its size and location, and the fact that many of the staff would transfer to the new authority, it is highly probable that the new authority would take over the existing Devon County Council headquarters at County Hall.

If it would remain in Exeter as now, would this also apply if Exeter (an expanded City of Exeter including Exmouth, the Clysts etc) were to be granted unitary status? Presumably, the City council would want to take possession of County Hall.

County Hall has been the headquarters for Devon County Council since 1889, and is wholly owned by the council, so would not automatically be transferred to any new authority. However, if the county were to be divided into two smaller unitary councils for greater Exeter and the remainder of Devon, it is likely questions would arise as the suitability of county hall as headquarters for the rural Devon unitary authority, and councillors would need to take into account the financial and logistical implications of its headquarters remaining in the city.