District members block decision to allocate £400k in funding for local government reorganisation

The Government announced in July that the county's existing authorities would be replaced by four new unitary councils, instead of the three-unitary approach backed by Torridge.

The decision to refuse to allocate additional money for the transition came during a full council meeting late last month in which members were considering how to spend £2.6m in surplus funding.

Torridge's section 151 officer recommended spending £400k of the additional funds on professional support and transition costs ahead of the transfer of functions to the new Devon unitary in April 2028.

However, a councillor proposed to spend the money on something else, stating: "I think we all know that [LGR] is going to be damaging for our area and if they want to do it, they can pay for it."

During the discussion, the s151 officer said that Whitehall will contribute £900k per unitary, "but the implementation costs are multiple millions".

Officers also told members that it would be "prudent" to set something aside for reorganisation, and that the authority would have to pay something at some point.

The proposal narrowly passed with 15 members voting for, 14 against, and two abstentions.

Last week Devon County Council announced that it had launched a legal challenge over the Government’s decisions on reorganisation, with its Leader suggesting that the proposals favour urban expansion over rural areas.

Adam Carey