No group of respondents supports expanding Plymouth, Exeter and Torbay and dumping the remaining 455,000 Devonians in a rural rump. In fact it is the least favoured option with three quarters of respondents having negative views on it.

Why, then, was this option chosen by ex Minister Steve Reed in what is described as a re-balancing of power from a culture of “Whitehall knows best”?

Are we to have no say in this devolution?

Surely we need a rationale for ignoring a consultation quite so comprehensively?

Owl has been looking at the 69 page Devon, Plymouth and Torbay – Summary and analysis of consultation responses .

This reveals that whether you look at all the respondents or just look at specialist consultees or responses from organisations; splitting Devon into 4 unitaries based on massive expansion of Plymouth, Exeter and Torbay is the least favoured option.

This summary and analysis is a difficult read particularly in making sense of the options. There are lots of data but little in the way of overall analysis.

Looking at the big picture, there are only three distinctly different concepts of how to eliminate the second tier district councils. Yet these three concepts produce five proposals. 

One concept comes from Devon County Council, Proposal 1.

A second comes from the eight districts, Proposal 3 (with proposal 2 as a variant)

The third comes jointly from Plymouth City, Exeter City and Torbay,, Proposal 4 (with proposal 5 as a variant).

The reason that there are two additional proposals reflects discord within proposers over boundary changes within the concept of their basic premise. Proposals 2 & 3 reflect a relatively small change relating to the Plymouth boundary adjacent to Dartmoor National Park. Proposals 4 & 5 reflect a rather bigger one relating to whether or not Torbay’s population should be expanded by 65%.

The Devon County 3 Unitary proposal keeps Plymouth and Torbay unitaries but rolls everything else into a single new Unitary.

The District Council 3 Unitary proposals keep Plymouth as a unitary but absorbs Torbay with three districts into a new Southern Devon Unitary. Exeter and the remaining four districts then form a new Northern Devon Unitary. The modified proposal tweaks Plymouth’s boundary around Dartmoor.

The Plymouth and Exeter 4 Unitary proposal expands Plymouth, Exeter and Torbay (by 65%) to form 3 unitaries with the fourth (Devon Coast & Country) covering everything else in a horseshoe from Kingwear to Seaton. The Torbay modification is to agree with Plymouth and Exeter except for the Torbay expansion.

The table below takes the average response across the multiple choice questions to provide an overall view of whether all respondents viewed a proposal positively or negatively. 

Overall, the responses demonstrate a preference for the 3 unitary (Devon County Council) proposal, keeping Plymouth and Torbay unitaries but rolling everything else into a single new unitary. 43% of respondents to the 3 unitary (Devon County Council) proposal provided positive responses to the questions and 44% of respondents provided negative responses. 14% were responses of neither agree nor disagree or don’t know. The 3 unitary (District Councils Main) proposal, keeping Plymouth as a unitary but dividing the remaining authorities into “Southern Devon” and “Northern Devon” unitaries, was the second most popular with 39% of respondents providing a positive response. The 4 unitary proposals, Plymouth and Exeter with the Torbay varient, were the least popular with 69% and 73% of respondents providing a negative responses.

Individuals living in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay 

The responses from individuals living in the area of Devon, Plymouth and Torbay demonstrate a preference for the 3 unitary (Devon County Council) proposal. 43% of respondents to the 3 unitary (Devon County Council) proposal provided positive responses to the questions and 44% of respondents provided negative responses. 12% were responses of neither agree nor disagree or don’t know. Preference in order is for 3 unitary (Devon County Council), 3 unitary (District Councils Main), 3 unitary (District Councils Modified), 4 unitary (Plymouth and Exeter) and then 4 unitary (Torbay). 

The responses from named consultees and organisations, however, demonstrate a preference for the 3 unitary (District Councils Main) proposal. But the two 4 unitary proposals remain at the bottom.

In due course Owl will publish extracts from the text comments raising all the issues about loss of local identity, urban/rural inequality, financial viability, service delivery disruption and fragmentation etc.

On the evidence put forward to support the necessary boundary changes the Local Government Boundary Commission for England observed that, across all proposals, while efforts have been made there was relatively little detail to support the specific boundary changes that were put forward.

Despite this Steve Reed pressed on with his agenda. – Owl