Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Alison Hernandez has just announced that she has begun to host a monthly Commissioner’s Accountability Board to discuss a range of topics relating to key police performance indicators.

At first glance you might think that Alison Harnandez has decided to spend less time taking selfies with doomed Tories and is becoming more accountable to the public. But it seems you might be mistaken.

Owl has been unable, so far, to discover the composition of this accountability board except that it is chaired by Commissioner Hernandez to an agenda set by herself!  

In other words, after nine years as PCC and her force receiving adverse reports from the police inspectorate in 2018, being placed in special measures in 2022, and still inadequate in 2024; she has just decided to beef up the way she oversees what is going on.

In her words:

“….recently, I have convened a new Accountability Board at which as Chair, I select a number of areas of policing activity and related performance, and scrutinise them in detail, requiring the Chief Constable and his team to explain both current performance and any plans they have in place to make improvements where required.”

Following each meeting, she then makes a judgement of assurance to indicate whether improvement plans are required or not, including details of how she has reached her decision.  

She will share these judgments with the public.

This begs the question: what has she been doing since 2016? 

Here is the first report:

Last month, three specific areas of performance were scrutinised.

The first, complaint handling and service delivery, was given a performance rating of ‘not assured’, meaning improvements are required.

Commissioner Hernandez concluded that neither is yet at an appropriate or acceptable standard, but said she is confident that the police’s improvement plan will deliver effective improvements.

Reassurance was provided that the police’s complaint backlog is starting to reduce.

The second topic was how Devon and Cornwall Police is continuing to rectify concerns identified following a review last year by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS).

It remains in the ‘engage’ process with the inspectorate over contact, crime data recording and investigations, with further improvement work required.

Commissioner Hernandez was satisfied that comprehensive plans to address all three areas are delivering improvements which provide ‘confidence’ that the issues can be rectified, but as further work is required, her overall judgement was ‘part assured’.

The final topic of the accountability board was the force’s response to the Commissioner’s Police and Crime Plan 2025-29, which sets out her key priorities – antisocial behaviour, serious violence, theft and drugs and alcohol.

Her judgement was ‘assured’ that the work already taken by police has been ‘comprehensive and appropriate’.

At the meeting, Chief Constable James Vaughan also gave an update on the police budget and financial performance, recent homicides and serious crimes, as well as areas of concern and success.

All sorted, back to the selfies, if only there were some Tories left! – Owl

Alison Hernandez on the stump with doomed Tory Twiss in April

[Richard Jefferies, Lib Dem, took the Honiton seat from long standing Tory Phil Twiss in May]

Richard Foord

Last month, a coalition of 32 nature charities wrote to ministers to warn that a new government Bill could lead to irreversible habitat loss.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which is designed to jumpstart the economy through building, will threaten our limited safeguards for nature and stall wildlife protection.

The Bill could also affect local communities with issues such as more sewage in rivers, increased flood risk, and loss of valued woodlands.

The Liberal Democrats have a long history of promoting nature-based policy.

I was glad to sign last week a Lib Dem amendment which would require the Secretary of State for the Environment to protect biodiversity in new developments.

These include measures to enable the provision on new construction projects of bird and bat boxes, swift bricks, and hedgehog highways.

Local democracy eroded

The other casualty of the Bill could be local democracy.

The Institute for Government reported in March that the Bill proposes to direct some planning decisions solely to officials (planning officers) rather than elected councillors.

In that scenario, unelected officials would make decisions in accordance with the Local Plan, rather than a recommendation having to go before a planning committee.

This would be a key change, which risks removing a layer of democracy.

It’s essential that we retain our ability to influence planning decisions.

I have also signed a Liberal Democrat amendment that calls for planning committees to retain their current powers.

Nature is struggling more than ever, with insect and pollinator populations plummeting.

As many birds and small mammals make it onto the red list of endangered species, it is unconscionable that ministers propose to sweep away what flimsy environmental protections we have.

The tired narrative that nature is a barrier to growth must shift.

We need to work with nature, not in opposition to it, if we are to have any hope of handing on this planet to our children and grandchildren in a better condition than it is currently.

The full picture will emerge at the full Council meeting on Thursday 22 May, when Councillors will decide who takes up the positions of Leader, Deputy Leader, Cabinet Members, appointments to committees, as well as the roles of Chairman and Vice Chairman.

But there is a hint in the press report below.

This  gives the background to the appointment of Cllr Julian Brazil to become the Leader of the Lib Dem group in the new County Council, with Cllr Paul Arnott his new group Deputy Leader.

At South Hams District Council, where Cllr Brazil is leader, the Lib Dems have an outright majority yet members of other parties hold cabinet posts.

Cllr Brazil said it would be his group that would decide who to appoint to which posts but that he would be “encouraging them to give as much responsibility to other parties as possible”.

Leader change for Devon’s Liberal Democrats after election surge

Bradley Gerrard www.exmouthjournal.co.uk

Devon’s Liberal Democrats have appointed Julian Brazil as their leader, marking a change atop the group after its election surge.

A vote at the weekend put Cllr Brazil (Kingsbridge) in charge of the party, which secured the most seats of any single group in the Devon County Council elections last week.

The Lib Dems tripled the number of seats they hold, after entering the election with nine and emerging with 27.

However, the party is short of an overall majority – which would have been 31 out of the total 60 seats – partly because of the significant performance by Reform UK, which is now the second largest party at County Hall with 18 seats.

The change means that councillor Caroline Leaver (Barnstaple South), who took the reins of the county council’s Lib Dem group off Cllr Brazil in January last year, will no longer be heading the party.

Cllr Leaver said she was “so proud” to have led the party in Devon to such a “stunning increase” in councillors.

“It’s a huge achievement,” she said.

“A few weeks ago I decided that I would stand down as leader of the Lib Dems after the election, for a host of reasons, and have every confidence in our new leader in sorting out the mess at County Hall left after 16 years of Conservative rule.

“There are many longstanding and complex problems to address, which will require the whole council to work together to solve.”

Alongside Cllr Brazil, the deputy leader is now Councillor Paul Arnott (Seaton & Colyton), who is the leader of East Devon District Council.

“The decision about the leader and deputy leader was taken via a vote of group members and it was quite close, but we emerged victorious,” Cllr Brazil said.

Asked whether the party would adopt a formal tie-up with the Green Party, Cllr Brazil said that was something that was yet to be decided, but he felt the “mood music suggested there might not be a formal coalition or agreement”.

“But that is a decision for the group,” he added.

“It is slightly daunting [to become leader] but it is incredibly exciting and it’s why you come into politics, to make a difference and now we hope to do just that.”

Cllr Brazil said he and his party had a “massive challenge” given what he deemed a “protest” vote by some of the electorate.

“We have heard it and so we have got to step up and get on with the job,” he added.

At South Hams District Council, where Cllr Brazil is leader, the Lib Dems have an outright majority yet members of other parties hold cabinet posts.

Whether this will be replicated at Devon County Council now is uncertain.

Cllr Brazil said it would be his group that would decide who to appoint to which posts but that he would be “encouraging them to give as much responsibility to other parties as possible”.

Children in Devon are “at risk of harm” due to continued failings in council services, a report has found.

Miles Davis BBC Devon political reporter www.bbc.co.uk

The Ofsted report into children’s services at Devon County Council rated the council as “inadequate” and said “serious weaknesses remain”.

The council was previously rated inadequate in March 2020 for its children’s services which cover children in care and children who need help and protection.

The council’s chief executive said it would now “focus all our energies on continuing to work on our improvement journey”.

The Ofsted report was carried out in September 2024 but was only published on Tuesday.

Devon County Council was under Conservative control at the time of the inspection but is now under no overall control following the local elections, with a new leader to be appointed on 22 May.

The report said there was a risk of harm particularly for “children experiencing neglect and domestic abuse, those at risk of extra-familial harm and care leavers living in unsuitable accommodation”.

Inspectors found basic checks were “not completed consistently when children are accommodated in an emergency”.

They said there was a “lack of immediate planning to ensure that children are helped and kept safe” and delays in child protection strategy discussions “leave some children at potential risk of ongoing significant harm”.

The report also said: “When children are first identified as being at risk of criminal or sexual exploitation, the response is not sufficiently effective across the partnership for all children.”

‘Decisive action’

The report said there had been “increased stability in leadership” which had “an impact on practice, from a very low base”.

It said there had been “decisive action” leading to “positive change” but “the current positive impact for children and care leavers is not widespread”.

Donna Manson, chief executive of the county council, said: “We have much to do but we must also recognise that progress is being made.

“Our ethos is that children and young people must be in our hearts, in our minds and in our sight.”

As well as gaining more than 160 councillors and taking control of three new councils, the Lib Dems are the biggest party in three others, and in four areas came second to Reform – which will be the core of the monitoring project, intended to scrutinise Reform’s mayors as well as councils……

A key part of the monitoring will be to see if and how Reform-run councils try to cut services,….

Other areas would include culture war battles, such as Reform barring councils from flying the Ukraine flag as a show of solidarity, and trying to cut back on climate and net zero-related work…….

Peter Walker www.theguardian.com

The Liberal Democrats have set up an internal “Reform watch” system to monitor Nigel Farage’s party in local government, with Ed Davey saying Labour and the Conservatives are too scared of the threat from Reform to hold it to account.

The Lib Dem leader defended his party’s performance in last week’s local elections, saying council contests where they unexpectedly ended up behind Reform mainly happened because of a collapse in votes for other parties.

As well as gaining more than 160 councillors and taking control of three new councils, the Lib Dems are the biggest party in three others, and in four areas came second to Reform – which will be the core of the monitoring project, intended to scrutinise Reform’s mayors as well as councils.

It is being spearheaded by Amanda Hopgood, the leader of the opposition group in the Reform-run County Durham, along with Antony Hook, who performs the same role in Kent, and Mike Ross, the leader of Hull city council, who came second to Reform’s Luke Campbell to be mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire.

A key part of the monitoring will be to see if and how Reform-run councils try to cut services, Davey said. Many families had been “alarmed” by Farage’s comments saying too many people were being diagnosed with special needs or mental illnesses, he said.

Other areas would include culture war battles, such as Reform barring councils from flying the Ukraine flag as a show of solidarity, and trying to cut back on climate and net zero-related work.

Davey said: “When you look at what councils do on climate change, the vast bulk of the work is insulating people’s homes. So is Nigel Farage essentially going to say to less well-off people: ‘We’re not insulating your home, you can pay higher energy bills, and that we’re pleased about that because that can make climate change worse.’ Is that the Reform position?”

Davey aims to present his party as “the antidote to Reform”, an extension of its bullish stance on opposing Donald Trump, where Labour and the Conservatives are more cautious.

He said: “We’re going to take the fight to them, whether it’s exposing the fact that Farage is a huge cheerleader for Donald Trump and wants money from Elon Musk, all those sorts of things.”

While the Lib Dems performed well in the local elections, they lost out to Reform in some key areas, for example the Hull and East Yorkshire mayoralty. Similarly, while they achieved their target of removing Warwickshire council from Tory control, this involved finishing a fairly distant second to Reform.

Davey said this did not mean they had underperformed. “We were expecting to do very well in south Warwickshire, which we did. In North Yorkshire, we weren’t expecting to do that well. It was Labour and Tories’ failures that let Reform in. They didn’t make any progress in our areas. Where we were really active, Reform were put in their place.”

Another complication, he said, was the fragmentation from very close multiparty contests, which in one instance meant the Lib Dems won a council seat on less than 19% of the total vote.

While Reform did not as yet seem to be parking any tanks on Lib Dem electoral lawns, this did not mean it would not happen, Davey said. “We’re not complacent. We don’t think the fight against Reform is going to be necessarily easy,” he said.

“Are we worried about the rise of Reform. Of course we are. The question is, what’s the best way to respond to that? And I don’t think it’s to copy them. I think it’s to tackle them head on. From what I can see, we’re the only party who seem to be up for that. The others seem to be a bit afraid of them.”

Richard Foord MP 

Firstly, a thank you to those people who voted Liberal Democrat at the local elections last Thursday.

It served to elect some brilliant new councillors, including five new Lib Dems here in the part of Mid and East Devon that I represent.

I am really looking forward to working with them as they take their place on Devon County Council.

They will complement two strong independent Councillors who have served on the Council before, and who have been re-elected.

County Councils have serious responsibilities.

The budget at Devon County Council is almost £2 billion.

The people whom we send to make decisions on how our money is spent need to be experienced, serious, and trustworthy.

The latest crop elected here in the Honiton & Sidmouth area is all those things.

Residents whose doors I knocked on in recent weeks gave me a variety of perspectives.

Some felt that Devon County Council needed a shake-up, after years of the Conservatives being in charge.

Others said that they were voting Lib Dem because they were more inclined to trust us on issues that the Council is responsible for, such as education, transport, and social care.

Nigel Farage wasn’t on anyone’s ballot paper in Devon.

Nonetheless, a few people told me that they were planning to vote for him, and I understood them to mean that they were voting on the basis of national, rather than local issues.

Local elections are always affected by national party politics.

Yet I am concerned that beyond our area, some effective, long-serving Councillors have been displaced by some individuals whose heart was not in serving their community.

I am not a fan of some of the ideas that Farage is importing from President Trump’s America.

Mr Farage seems to spend too much time in the United States, courting Donald Trump and acting in a sycophantic way towards him.

Farage has been “putting on notice” council workers who have been permitted previously to work from home.

If home is defined as being here in the UK (rather than in the US), I think Mr Farage could do with working from home more himself.

Once elected, I sense that people want their representatives to drop the ‘Punch and Judy’ party politics.

Residents told me that they want us to cooperate to get things done.

Instead, we sometimes see a relentless use of elected office for parties to either retain power, or gain power at future elections.

Lib Dem Councillors won’t be doing that; we will be negotiating with smaller parties and independents to form an effective administration for Devon.

I can offer assurance that in Parliament, I work with people from any party who share British values of tolerance, fair play, and mutual respect, to act on the imperatives that people here in Devon – our home – send me off to London to help tackle.

seatonmatters.org

As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, we face within Britain the very same forces that we defeated from outside in 1945. Reform UK are not, yet, a full-blown fascist party, but they are unmistakably from the same family: racist, nationalist, and above all authoritarian and anti-democratic.

You can see this in Nigel Farage’s arrogant dismissal of all initiatives to promote equality and inclusion in our society, and in his attempt to make Reform wipe out, with a stroke of the pen, all the efforts of councils to combat the climate emergency. You can see it, above all, in his slavish worship and aping of Donald Trump’s authoritarian and dictatorial regime.

Remember that Farage defended Trump’s attempted violent coup in 2020. If Reform UK were to come to power in 2029 – thanks to our corrupt first-past-the-post system which might give him victory with 30 per cent of the votes – he would resort to the the antidemocratic steps that Trump took to hang on to power.

So here is my message to our Liberal Democrat, Green and Independent councillors: don’t normalise Reform. Allow then to represent their constituents (if they do), give them their fair share of committee places, but don’t do deals with them, don’t let them run things, keep them well away from power. They need to be defeated as we defeated their forerunners in the 1940s

There are two governance models available to councils: the committee based system and the Leader and Cabinet system. Over the years most councils have now adopted the Leader and Cabinet system for practical reasons. Councillor Brazil is calling for a new way of doing politics but seem to want to attempt this under the Leader and Cabinet system. This will be challenging.

From the Devon County web site Councillor Julian Brazil, Lib Dem Leader, is quoted as saying:

“The mood music I’m getting from our group is that we don’t want a formal sharing agreement among parties, and I support that. If we’re making the right decisions members should vote with us. It’s a new way of doing politics, but it’s a much more mature and developed way of doing things. If we have compromise among 60 members we will make better decisions for the Council.”

This is a sentiment that probably chimes with most people, but how is he going to make these compromises work in a council whose members have markedly different political philosophies and values?

It is difficult to make collective group decisions unless the members hold a set of common beliefs about the best way to reach their objectives. For example over expanding services or cutting them.

Julian Brazil is leader of South Hams, a small 31 seat district district council with a Lib Dem majority. Devon County has twice the number of seats divided roughly 3:2 left to right leaning political groups.

From the last paragraph it appears that there is no proposal to return to a committee based governance model but stay with the Leader and Cabinet model.

In the committee based model the council establishes a number of committees, each with a specific area of responsibility. The political groups appoint elected members to those committees. More councillors are actively involved in decision-making, but it can take longer to reach decisions. For this reason most councils have adopted the Leader and Cabinet model.

Should we be expecting a “rainbow” cabinet with a deputy leader drawn from the next largest party Reform?

This is a bold and brave start to the new council. – Owl

www.devon.gov.uk 

Councillor Julian Brazil, Leader of the Liberal Democrat (Lib Dems) group at Devon County Council, wants all of the Councillors at the authority to have a voice.

Following last Thursday’s local elections, Devon County Council was left under no single party control. Of the 60 seats, the Lib Dems won the most with 27, but that left them just short of the 31 seats needed to gain overall control.

Reform UK, new to the council, won 18 seats; the Conservative Party – seven seats; Green Party – six; Independents – two; with the Labour Party now having no seats on the council.

The results represent a significant change at County Hall, where the Conservatives had been in control since 2009.

Councillor Brazil, who has been voted as group Leader by the newly elected Lib Dem councillors at Devon County Council, also wants to see change in the services provided by the authority.

He said: “The mood music I’m getting from our group is that we don’t want a formal sharing agreement among parties, and I support that. If we’re making the right decisions members should vote with us. It’s a new way of doing politics, but it’s a much more mature and developed way of doing things. If we have compromise among 60 members we will make better decisions for the Council.

“I want councillors to vote for what’s best for their community; that leads to better decisions and a better council. Everyone should feel they have a voice and have the opportunity to be influential – that’s the culture I want to engender here at the County Council. It’s good to have a mix of views and beliefs to be truly representative of the communities we serve.

“The County Council needs to be more outward looking and work more closely with partners. Children in Devon have been failed for too long, we have got to get that right, and potholes affect us all, we need to find a better way to repair roads but for less.”

Councillor Michael Fife Cook, speaking on behalf of the Reform UK group, agreed that cooperation among councillors is vital for the county. He said: “I don’t see us as opposition. We have been elected and people will expect us to work together for the good of the county. We can’t force through change, it will have to be by compromise, but good ideas can come from anywhere and that’s how we have a constructive council. Councillors aren’t just representing those who voted for them but their whole community so we are representing Devon.”

Councillor Jacqi Hodgson, Leader of the Green and Independent group, said: “We are delighted that our group of Green Councillors has grown to six and we expect to have the opportunity to drive a stronger greener agenda through cooperation with fellow Councillors from all parties and Independents. We hope for better democracy and a brighter future for all our residents.”

Councillor Andrew Leadbetter, Leader of the Conservative group, said: “I welcome the comments made by Councillor Brazil, after all we have been elected to put the interests of the residents of Devon first and to make a difference to people’s lives. If we can all work together for the good of Devon that has to be a good thing. Rural counties like Devon face unique issues that need to be recognised nationally, and we must all work together to ensure we receive adequate funding to address them.”

(Clockwise from top left) Councillor Brazil, Councillor Hodgson, Councillor Leadbetter, Councillor Fife Cook.

At the Full Council meeting on Thursday 22 May, Councillors will decide who takes up the positions of Leader, Deputy Leader, Cabinet Members, appointments to committees, as well as the roles of Chairman and Vice Chairman.

East Devon Independents join the Greens to form a political group of 8.

No news of any other groups forming.- Owl

Bradley Gerrard www.exmouthjournal.co.uk 

Jacqi Hodgson has been reappointed as the leader of the Green and Independent group after a post-election bounce in seats.

The Greens jumped to six councillors after the Devon County Council elections last week (May 1), up from the two they had heading into the ballot.

Cllr Hodgson, who held her Totnes & Dartington seat, said the Greens and two independent members – Councillor Jess Bailey, who held her Otter Valley seat, and Councillor Paul Hayward, who won in Axminster – would be a political grouping.

“We had discussions about the things we felt would be possible and what we would be proposing as part of any potential agreement [with the Lib Dems] but there is nothing solid yet,” Cllr Hodgson said.

“We know [the Lib Dems] are interested in working with us, and us with them, but hopefully we’ll have an opportunity in the coming days to meet and talk more widely.”

Because the Lib Dems secured 27 seats in the election, they are the biggest single party at County Hall now, but don’t have an outright majority.

This means they will need the support of another party or political group to get their prospective policies and initiatives through.

Cllr Hayward said he had accepted an invitation to join the Green and Independent political group, which he hoped would “help create an administration that is collegiate and varied”.

“I will still vote on the issues as I see them, and if the Green members propose something that I think needs altering, then I hope that by discussion and debate we can agree a consensus that we are all happy with,” he said.

“If of course they don’t, then it will be up to them to explain to me why, as above all else, I am independent and I will vote for what is good for Devon and its people.”

Cllr Hayward added that he liked to “extol green issues”, and that Axminster Town Council, which he is the clerk for, had signed the climate emergency declaration in 2019 and tried to promote green initiatives in the town.

Cllr Bailey, who was part of the Green and Independent group prior to the election, confirmed she had rejoined it.

“I will remain independent though as I can’t imagine there will be any obligation to vote in a particular way,” she said.

“While I’m not part of the Green Party, green issues are a key priority for me.”

Besides Cllr Hodgson and Councillor Henry Gent, who held his Broadclyst seat, the Greens now have three county councillors in Exeter – Councillor Jack Eade in Heavitree & Whipton Barton, Councillor Andy Ketchin in St David’s & Haven Banks, and Councillor Thomas Richardson in St Sidwells & St James.

Councillor Sara Wilson also took Ilfracombe for the party.

Since Owl received this letter from a correspondent, there are BBC reports that Reform may have reversed ferret on this

Does Reform UK want to hide Devon County’s flag?

Dear Owl,

I am an advocate of the Union Jack and St Georges flags being flown at council offices. Both sides of my family can be traced to living in England for at least two centuries. 

However, I was most concerned to read that the Chair of Reform UK, Zia Yusuf only wants the Union Jack and St George’s flags to be flown on its council’s flag-poles, balconies, reception desks or council-chamber walls.

“Reform controlled English councils will move at speed to resolve that the *only* flags permitted to be flown on or in its buildings will be the Union Jack and the St George’s flag. No other flags will be permitted to be flown on its flag-poles, balconies, reception desks or council-chamber walls.  “

Does the Chair of Reform UK, Zia Yusuf not understand about the uniqueness of counties? 

The Devon flag may be very recent as a result of a competition but it represents a symbol of pride for those who were born or live in the county.

It might be worth Reform UK councillors and supporters based in Devon reading up about their county and their flag and explaining it to Mr Yusuf. 

This article explains the symbolism within the Devon flag.

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/reason-devons-flag-green-cornwalls-2251207

The former MP for a East Devon, Mr Simon Jupp was a very proud Devonian, and in his maiden speech he stated his family had “lived in the county for generations.” Many constituents and visitors to Exmouth would have seen the Devon flag on the wall in his constituency office which was situated in Mamhead View, along the seafront. 

Here’s a picture of Mr Jupp in his office. And the wall to his left had a very large Devon flag fixed to it.

Are Reform UK out-of-touch or unknowledgeable authoritarians, who want to deprive constituents in Devon of a sense of pride in our county? 

No councils in Devon should ever become Reform led, otherwise we are in danger of losing our unique heritage. 

Yours 

Concerned for Devon’s cultural heritage

Owl thinks that the county democratic services have done well to provide easily assimilated visual guides to the local election outcomes.

The first series in this post show, at a glance, the political colours of each seat won in each division.

Below these is the same information mapped geographically.

Below that are histograms showing the distribution of seats and number of votes cast for the main parties.

Some “off the cuff” observations (to provoke thought)

Exeter’s Labour wipe-out

Perhaps the most surprising result is the way that Exeter voters have turned against Labour.

In 2021 Labour had 7 seats based in and around the City, now they have none, with voters swinging all over the place.

Devon devolution

Although not a major issue in the election, the different councils’ declared approaches to local authority reorganisation are now likely to come under the spotlight.. 

Leader of the labour controlled Exeter City Council, Philip Bialyk has pursued the “go it alone” notion of Exeter and its commuter belt becoming a unitary authority. This has always begged the question as to who picks up the tab for the rural communities. A notion that maybe doesn’t command much voter support.

Likewise, the outgoing Conservative County Council initially claimed it was on the fast-track with its takeover proposal to swallow the districts, until this was rejected for not meeting government guidelines. Then it swung the other way with a smorgasbord of alternatives.

Neither of these ideas meet the current government guidelines.

The districts have other ideas and proposed the 1-4-5 three way split (the 1 is in deference to Exeter) before the election. The districts’ views are now likely to carry greater in the new County Council.

Will the government now double down on its devolution plans described recently as:  The worst local government white paper in living memory? Or reconsider in the light of the overall local election results?

Owl doesn’t expect devolution to happen any time soon.

Distribution of Reform wins.

The Reform wins look to cluster in: Exeter, suggesting a protest vote against the government; and then in Teignbridge, Torrige and West Devon. Here Owl wonders to what extent this might reflect a cry to be heard from voters in a part of “forgotten rural Britain”, forgotten by the Conservatives and simply “not on the radar” of metropolitan Labour.

The case for a proportional voting system

With the general recognition that a “five party” system is now emerging, the case for a proportional voting system is being raised once again. In particular by Reform who did particularly badly in the general election.

The table below shows how each party fared in respect of the proportion of seats they gained compared to their share of the vote (numbers rounded).

In this instance Reform and the Greens both got about the appropriate number of seats. The Lib Dems were the big winners and the Conservatives and Labour were the losers.

The political colour of each Division

The colours mapped

Histograms of numbers of seats and share of the votes (see here for tabulation)

Why two? 

Do you really need to ask?

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, spent Friday morning in Shropshire handing out ice creams to members of the public, cracking jokes about “support for the Tories melting away”. The Lib Dems won the council there for the first time, taking one ward by a single vote and a second tied vote on the drawing of straws. Davey then ate two scones, one with cream on top and one with jam on top, to celebrate gains in both Devon and Cornwall, where fierce debate rages over the best way to make a cream tea. The Lib Dems won more councils and councillors than the Conservatives and now run more town halls nationwide. (Extract from Tim Shipman www.thetimes.com)

(He’s got one the “right way up” but looks to be spooning jam on first for the second)

With “No overall control” in both councils what is the big picture?

Devon – 60 seats

Lib Dems have 27 seats. Then there are the 2 East Devon Independents Paul Hayward and Jess Bailey, used to working in a Lib Dem led coalition, and 6 greens in play. So Owl expects a Lib Dem led administration with either formal MOUs or “supply and maintenance” agreements to emerge.

Reform 18 and Conservatives 7 together can only muster 25 right wing votes. 

Cornwall – 87 seats

Cornwall is much more complicated. 

Reform is the largest party with 28 seats but was reported on BBC news last night as complaining that none of the other parties will talk to them. 

The Lib Dems have 26 seats, nearly as many.

There are 16 Independents, 7 Conservatives, 4 Labour, 3 Greens, and 3 Mebyon Kernow. 

At least 44 councillors have to work together to run Cornwall which means both Reform and Lib Dems are in with a chance.

Jeff Trail in Exmouth is the only Tory left, hanging on a paper thin majority of 21 votes.

Lib Dems 5

Reform 2

Independents 2 (Paul Hayward and Jess Bailey)

Green 1

Helen Brown for reform topped the poll and her running mate Si Femor got within 21 votes of toppling Jeff Trail. This leaves Trail the ONLY conservative councillor in East Devon with the narrowest of margins!

With the last two seat Exmouth Division just declared the BBC tally puts the Lib Dems on 27 with the 2 East Devon Independents Paul Hayward and Jess Bailey and 6 greens in play to form a LibDem led coalition/alliance. There are 60 council members.

Reform 18 and Conservatives 7 together can only muster 25. Labour have lost all their 7 seats.

One of the two seat Divisions: Henry Gent holds Broadclyst for Greens and Nat Vanstone Reform comes second. This was the Tory seat previously held by Sarah Randall Johnson.

Tight race between Eleanor Rylance Lib Dem and Fernando Morales Gundin Reform for third place.

Jes Bailey, Independent, holds her seat in Otter Valley with 63% of the vote. “Local Conservative” scrapes 486 votes

Nick Hookway for the Lib Dems takes Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton Coastal – Reform splits right wing vote

Denise Bickley for Lib Dems defeats big beast and former ” monster raving loony” Stuart Hughes!

Paul Arnott wins with 40.6% of the vote on a healthy (for local election) 40% turnout – Reform second