Reshaping Devon councils and environment among priorities for re-elected leader

Re-elected East Devon District Council leader Paul Arnott says his top priorities include helping overhaul how Devon’s councils are organised, the environment and housing.

Cllr Arnott (Liberal Democrat, Coly Valley) was voted in as leader for the sixth consecutive year as a fulll council meeting this week.

Mr Arnott, who now also oversees the Seaton & Colyton division on Devon County Council and is deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats there, secured more votes than Cllr John Heath (Independent, Beer and Branscombe), who was proposed as a candidate following some concerns about Cllr Arnott’s workload.

Independent member Cllr Ian Barlow (Sidmouth Town) said: “I don’t think Cllr Arnott has done a bad job, but I am more concerned with the position our council is in at the present time, and with the [Devon-wide] reorganisation going on, I wonder whether there is a huge conflict of interest now that our leader has gone on to bigger and better things.

“We at East Devon have four main things we look after – refuse, Streetscene (which cleans public spaces), leisure and housing, and I just think that seeing as three of those at the present time are challenged technically, I think we need a leader that has the time to do that.”

Cllr Arnott acknowledged it was a “perfectly fair question”, but said it was not uncommon for a serving councillor to be on the cabinet in two councils.

“There has been a long history of double-hatters in both cabinets of the district and county council,” he said.

“I work about a 60-hour week and do no other work, just this, and so I absolutely have the capacity to do the work here. However, having discussed it with officers at both councils, if there is ever a conflict of interest, I will recuse myself from that debate.”

He added that he felt it was in East Devon’s interest “to have a strong voice” at the table when it comes to discussions about how Devon’s councils will be reorganised.

The government wants to abolish the two-tier system of local government that exists in Devon as well as other areas of the country.

At present, district councils perform some services, while county councils perform different ones, but Westminster views so-called unitary councils – where all services are under one roof – as more simple and efficient.

Most of Devon’s eight district councils have supported a proposal that would see Plymouth remain a unitary council but with potentially expanded borders.

East Devon would be combined with Mid and North Devon, Exeter and Torridge to create one large unitary council under the proposal, while South Hams Teignbridge, West Devon and Torbay – which is already a unitary – would be combined.

The government is expected to provide feedback on this proposal and others submitted by the previous administration at the county council before the local elections took place. It is understood ministers want a solution agreed by November.

Besides local government reorganisation, Cllr Arnott said there would now be two portfolio holders, each with an assistant, focused on the environment.

Cllr Geoff Jung (Liberal Democrat, Woodbury and Lympstone) was named as environmental operations portfolio holder with Cllr Paula Fernley (Green Party, Broadclyst) as his assistant, and Cllr Richard Jefferies (Liberal Democrat, Taw Vale) will take on the nature and climate portfolio holder with incumbent Cllr Marianne Rixson (Liberal Democrat, Sidmouth Sidford) becoming his assistant.

“Both portfolio holders will have a duty to look to make sure we are doing climate action across the entire council,” Cllr Arnott said, noting that Cllr Jung’s role would focus on the likes of beach management and refuse, while Cllr Jefferies would be pointed towards looking after protected areas, such as Seaton wetlands.

On housing, Cllr Arnott acknowledged the district council had a “huge housing stock and need to get better at that”.