Postponing Devon elections ‘not done deal’

Devon County Council has been warned that there is a ‘very high bar’ to clear before the government will let it delay May’s planned local elections.

Devon County Council has been warned that there is a ‘very high bar’ to clear before the government will let it delay May’s planned local elections.The authority is one of 18 across the country to have asked for permission to stall the polls while details of a planned local government reorganisation are worked out.Supporters of the delay say there is no point in holding elections for posts on a council that may soon cease to exist in its current form.It is estimated to cost around £1.5 million to run the county council elections in Devon.But opponents say they are a vital part of making councils accountable to the people they serve and must go ahead.Just before Christmas the government published a white paper outlining two major new strategies for local government. A reorganisation programme could wipe out district councils altogether and replace them with larger unitary authorities.Then, over the top of that, the country could be divided up into large strategic authorities with elected mayors, directly accountable to the government and holding devolved powers over issues such as spending government money on local projects.The proposals have had a mixed response in Devon, where some large councils are exploring a link-up for a strategic authority with Cornwall while other smaller ones face potential extinction.People running Cornwall don’t like the idea at all and wants to go it alone.Government ministers will make the final decisions on which councils will be allowed to delay elections, and local government minister Jim McMahon has said that not all requests will be granted.Speaking in the House of Commons, he said: “We acknowledge that for some areas the timing of elections affects their planning for devolution, particularly alongside reorganisation.“To help to manage these demands, we will consider requests to postpone local elections, as has been the case in previous rounds. Where local elections are postponed, we will work with local areas to move elections to a new shadow unitary council as soon as possible.“We will consider these requests carefully and postpone elections only where there is a clear commitment to delivering both reorganisation and devolution to the ambitious timetable set out.“This is a very high bar, and rightly so.”The government says reorganising the smaller councils will create simpler, more efficient ways of delivering local services, but some councillors say they fear losing local grassroots accountability.Across the country 21 county councils are due to hold elections in May. Of those, 16 have requested postponements. Two unitary councils have also asked for delays.The county authorities are Derbyshire, Devon, East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. The unitaries are Thurrock and the Isle of Wight.

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