Torbay leader predicts ‘minor tweaks’ as Minister pauses Devon council plan

The ‘Berry Pomeroy Question’ could be answered as a result of the government’s ‘withdrawal’ of radical plans to shake up Devon’s councils.

Local government minister Jim McMahon made the announcement in the Commons.

Torbay Council leader David Thomas, who heard the proposals in a briefing with the minister earlier today, said that while he believed plans to carve the county up into four new unitary authorities would survive the re-think, there may be room for ‘minor tweaks’.

And one of them could be over the way the boundary changes affect the village of Berry Pomeroy, between Totnes and Paignton.

The original blueprint for the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) programme placed the village in the expanded Torbay unitary area rather than allowing it to remain with nearby Totnes in the ‘Coast and Countryside’ unitary which contained the parts of Devon not swallowed up by expanding Torbay, Exeter and Plymouth.

There was an outcry over the proposal, which split a street in the Bridgetown area of Totnes in two. Local people and politicians said it made no sense to split Berry Pomeroy from Totnes.

Cllr Thomas (Con, Preston) said: “The government says it is still committed to LGR, and what we have heard today suggests that it is still firmly on the table.

“I think the government’s starting position will be just where it left off last time, with the four unitaries for Devon, but with a conversation to be had about modest tweaks, which may include the Berry Pomeroy question.

“From a Torbay perspective the government’s four unitaries are not what we put on the table, and we know our residents want Torbay to stay within its current boundaries. It is the government’s view that we will be expanding.

“From a Torbay perspective that is still a much better option than having a single Devon council.”