The most interesting thing affecting County at the moment is the Local Government Review (LGR). You may be aware that this has been going on for years and that the Minister has now made a decision. Exeter started all of this by applying for Unitary status, this was rejected by the Boundaries Commission, who said that a consideration should be for a Unitary Devon, which should include Exeter, because Exeter on it's own was not viable.

This now has gone a full circle back to just giving Exeter Unitary status, and leaving the rest of Devon, as it was, a two tier system with the District Councils. Why was this decision made, the cynic would say that there is an impending general election, and this will help secure Ben Bradshaw's seat.

The Government itself discounted it as a hugely costly and unworkable option before, bad for the City and the people of Devon, Rosie Winterton, the Minister, agrees with that analysis.

No one will gain, it is estimated that this will cost every Exeter City Taxpayer £200 on their tax bill, and the Minister confirms that people in the City will pay more for less. But so will every Resident in Devon. By tearing Devon apart and splitting up vital services like social services and schools which the County Council now provide effectively, efficiently and economically is simply madness. We all know now,  this is the time to cut costs and red tape not to create expensive new tiers of bureaucracy. There will be a build up to the change over,  all this is planned to take place on April 2011.

There will be on interruption from the Mid Devon District point of view, it will be business as usual.

It is that time of year again when we have to talk about the Budget. With increasing reductions of grant from Government it continues to put pressure on what we as residents have to pay, to make up the difference,  we have to make savings on all our budgets within County. The proposal for Full Council is to hold the increase of Council Tax to 1.98% increase.

You will be aware of the severe winter we have had so far, and it is not over yet. The potholes are always a topical point with Parishes, and we have even got more than we had last year. In this Eastern Area, County filled in 2000 potholes in the last week, but still a lot to go. To bring all the County roads up to a standard we would like, will take something in the region of £240million, it will be a very long time before we will see all of Devon with high quality roads. There has been a further £3.5million put into road maintenance the next year.

Somerlea Road has been accepted as to have deteriorated further, particularly with the bad weather, that will be on the agenda for the HATOC meeting which is on 15th March, when it will be prioritised with all the other applications. I of course will be pushing for this maintenance, but it will add weight  to the wheel if the Parish Council make suitable noises as well. 

There has been a 53% decline in the use of the mobile libraries over the last 10 years, we intend to streamline them and bring them up to 21st century, and to be a more of a community event, rather than stopping short periods at a time. I would urge as many as possible to use this service, we don't want to loose it, particularly in the rural areas, that's what could happen.

Regards,
Ray Radford - County Councillor