Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

BOUNDARIES 
Some of you can remember vividly when Plympton RDC was annexed into the city of Plymouth during the early 1970's. Hardly a month goes by without a resident of Plympton or Plymstock grumbling to me about becoming part of the city all those years ago.

But what if it is about to happen to Ivybridge, or Yealmpton or Modbury? Strange as it may seem, such an outcome could well be determined in a new review of Devon's boundaries that the government has just ordered.

It all started last year because Exeter City Council wanted to become a unitary authority in the recent round of local government review. Plymouth and Torbay are both already unitary authorities, but the rest of Devon is run by a county council (schools, social services and roads) and a series of district councils (planning and refuse). The Exeter bid failed because it is too small to run its own show, but rather than just declining the bid, the government ordered a review of the entire shape of Devon governance to see if a better solution could be found.

The pressure on the committee that will make its recommendation to ministers by the end of 2008 is two-fold. First, they have an in-built bias towards a unitary solution (Cornwall is soon to become one single tier council), so the likelihood that they will recommend no change is minuscule. Second, they have been expressly ordered to look at the boundaries of Plymouth and Torbay if necessary to find a Devon wide solution. A larger Plymouth and Torbay, with the rest of the county split into one or more unitaries is the most likely outcome.

There is some logic in expanding Plymouth to take in Langage and Sherford, but a more fundamental outcome, swallowing more rural places into the city boundaries is unattractive. Watch this space.

posted by Nigel on Friday, February 22, 2008