Different council responsibilities

Councils have different levels – these are called tiers.

• The first tier is county councils
• The second tier is made up of district, city or borough councils
• The third tier is made up of town or parish councils

Take a look at an easy read guide about the structure of Devon County Council and the services we are responsible for.

County councils

County councils cover a very large area with between half and one and a half million people living there.

These are the services that county councils provide with partners (different organisations):

• Community and living
• Public Health Health and active
• Environment
• Economy and enterprise
• Libraries
• Education and families
• Road maintenance
• Trading Standards
• Transport
• Planning and development
• Waste and recycling
• Democracy and transparency

District councils

There are eight district councils within Devon:

• East Devon
• Exeter City
• Mid Devon
• North Devon
• South Hams
• Teignbridge
• Torridge
• West Devon

District councils cover:

• local planning
• council housing
• Devon home choice
• homelessness
• benefits
• refuse collection
• street cleaning
• sports and leisure facilities
• environmental health

Parish or town councils cover:

• allotments
• playing fields
• village greens
• swimming pools
• bus shelters
• public seats
• provision of halls and meeting places