Owl says: how long can Devon resist the change to one (or two) unitary councils in a county, entirely cutting out the district tier? Economies of scale now seem to require mergers or abolition of districts.
Will we be part of “Greater Exeter” or “Devon Unitary” by the next election – or both!
And where will headquarters be? Honiton isn’t exactly the centre of the Greater Exeter or Devon unitary universes!
“Based on the weight of public opinion, financial data and evidence of the likely benefits of change to the county as a whole, councillors have agreed that the two new unitary councils should comprise of the following existing local authority areas:
• Unitary A: Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
• Unitary B: East Dorset, North Dorset, Purbeck, West Dorset, Weymouth and Portland – including the services currently provided by Dorset County Council in this area.
If approved, the new council would ‘go live’ in April 2019.
Leader of Dorset County Council Robert Gould said: “This is absolutely the right decision for Dorset County Council to have made. The final decision lies with the Secretary of State, but Dorset county councillors have made an historic decision which will help protect the frontline services and is in the best interests of all our residents.”
http://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/dorset_councils_vote_for_change_1_4888091
East Devon Watch 
I only wish more counties would do the same and I would go one further and for each region just have one MP. I think there are far too many Lords and MPs in Parliament and with age of communication technology – should cut them all down to a third. Well done forward-thinking Dorset I say – cut out some of the bureaucracy.
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