Dave Thomas: School's out – but we still need your help

Our summer season here in the Bay is now in full swing and it’s been great to see and feel the buzz around our towns as we welcome visitors in.

I imagine you have seen the amazing floral displays that the teams at SWISCo and a range of volunteers across the Bay have been working incredibly hard at putting together. 

Last week we welcomed the Britain in Bloom judges for the South West to view all these fabulous displays. During their visit they were shown many of our most impressive and beautiful locations, such as Cockington and Clenon Lakes. National judging for the Britain in Bloom competition is also scheduled to take place this week.

Torquay is actually hosting the South West in Bloom awards ceremony this October, so I’m sure you will join me in crossing your fingers that the teams and volunteers are recognised for their hard work.

Our engagement on Local Government Reorganisation is still open and we have received a good response so far, but we want and need more. To help with this we have extended the closing date for the consultation, so you have until the end of August to take part.

All of the information on why we are carrying out this consultation can be found at www.torbay.gov.uk/lgr. We do though have paper copies available of what’s online as well as the consultation at all four libraries across the Bay. 

Over 700 responses have been received since we opened the consultation at the end of June and to help us ensure we hear from more of you, we are planning on being out and about at some of our summer events held across the Bay.

On Sunday August 10 we will be at Babbacombe Fayre on the Downs. This is always such a popular and well attended event we hope you stop by our stand to let us know your thoughts.

The following week we are holding an opportunity for you to hear directly from me. I will be at the Scala Hall in Brixham on Tuesday August 12 where I will give a presentation on how we have reached this point and to give you an opportunity to ask any questions you may have. We are just firming up plans with the venue so make sure you either signed up to our eNewsletter One Torbay (www.torbay.gov.uk/onetorbay) or follow our social media channels to find out the exact times.

We will then also be at Children’s Week the following week. Again, as I write this letter we are just confirming which day we will be there, but I will share in future columns dates and times of these events.

As a reminder to why we are doing this, the Government has asked all the councils across Devon to work together to develop a proposal to replace the current system of unitary, district and county councils, with a solely unitary model of local government. 

Following our public event and receiving feedback from you, it was agreed that three potential options for re-organisation should be explored, these are:

   1. Torbay Council remains as it is.

2. A new unitary council be created covering Torbay, approximately half of South Hams and most of Teignbridge. This is similar to the catchment area of the Torbay and South Devon NHS foundation Trust and mirrors the South Local Care Partnership area.
3. A new unitary council be created covering the area of Torbay, South Hams, West Devon and Teignbridge.

What is important to Cabinet, and I, is that we need to ensure what we submit is right for Torbay. I am aware though that we have to meet the criteria that the government has set and constructively engage in the process, or we could be in the position that we are done to. We need to very much be a part of this conversation in order to influence the outcome.