For the last two years, my life has been dominated by a subject the public, understandably, showed no interest in at all. Local Government Reorganisation. Guaranteed to clear a pub or a tea room in minutes.

Paul Arnott www.midweekherald.co.uk

That is until a couple of months back when under Keir Starmer the result for Devon was announced. That’s when the pitchforks came out and people started to say, what the heck!

The context is this. In July 2024, we elected a new government, and my perspective was, let’s give them a chance. Sadly, in my area of interest, their manifesto aim of devolving power to the regions through Mayors mutated into a non-manifesto series of diktats to reorganise local government (LGR) at the same time. Chaos.

In December 2024 we were given eight weeks including the Christmas break to come up with ideas for different shapes for local government in Devon. We were told to obey criteria, three of which were that the new Unitaries should be five hundred thousand population at least, that whatever was submitted must work for the whole geography in Devon, and that it should be done along existing district council boundaries.

Sadly, as the grizzled Leader at East Devon, and portfolio holder for LGR at Devon County, I knew from the very start that Labour councils in Devon would try to stitch this up. It became known as their “I’m alright, Jack” approach.

Despite the clear instructions above to create something which worked for all 1.25 million people in Devon, the Labour leaderships in Plymouth and Exeter ignored that, with the tacit approval of pals in Westminster, and submitted ideas to scoop valuable parishes into their dream expanded authorities. Neither of their plans reached three hundred thousand,

Meanwhile, the Conservatives in Torbay fell in line with a nonsensical expansion into the South Hams and Teignbridge. It soon became a national story, quite rightly, that Totnes was to be divided such that next door neighbours would have their bins collected by different councils.

As to the rest of us, the Labour councils drew a map for us all – from Kingsbridge in the south, to Holsworthy to the west, Ifracombe in the north, and Axminster in the east – with zero conversations with the district councils involved, dooming about 550,000 Devonians to a comically unworkable horseshoe shaped authority.

They shoved West Hill – full of high council taxpayers and land for future development – into the expanded Exeter, and Ottery St Mary next door with greater need for services into the Devon horseshoe.

But as they arrogantly pressed on, at Devon County we were quietly watching how process after process was being breached, and for over a year slowly compiled an evidence base for a possible Judicial Review. The draft of that was submitted a couple of months ago.

It is that solid legal challenge, and our absolute resolve to follow through on this, that is the real reason LGR was paused, or ceased, or whatever form of face-saving words Angela Rayner had to use last week [note this article originally dated 16 September]. Not MPs, not letters of protest, but ice-cold evidence, especially around the reckless way the Labour plan would smash up Children’s Services in Devon.

Meanwhile, all my allied councils in Devon totally accept the need to combine services, to evolve and improve local government. We are already doing it. And we welcome the possibility of a Devon mayor to bring tens of millions of pounds of inward investment into the county.

We also applaud Andy Burnham for stepping in and calling LGR off. This took a rare national politician who genuinely understands what councils do and their eternal struggles.

But two questions remain. Who precisely drew those absurd maps, and why? And when will we be recompensed for the millions spent pursuing this fool’s errand?

Labour leaders have been let down by their own party twice this year. First, they were told they could cancel May 2026’s elections in Exeter and Plymouth. Then they were told they were not.

Next, they gave in their flawed plan as described above and it was announced that was what was going to happen. A few weeks later, they were told the deal was off. Still they pretend it might happen. It won’t.

The Strategic Mayoral Authority is the only game in town now for Andy Burnham. Leaders in Devon need to set differences over LGR to one side – and we will – and focus on that. A bit of contrition would go down well, but as I wrote above, I am grizzled enough not to expect it.