WITH Devon’s settlement for the coming financial year to be announced in mid-December Cllr John Hart, leader of Devon County Council (DCC), attended a meeting in Holsworthy’s Market Hall on Monday, November 6, to brief local town and parish councillors on the county’s 2018/19 budget, writes Christine Williams.

He began by recalling that he had been coming to the Holsworthy Area Advisory meetings for seven years and that each year he had had to announce that there was less money than for the previous year and that austerity would continue.

He warned of the budget challenges facing the county council and the need to deliver a further saving of £22-million in the coming year and reminded the meeting of the £230.4-million savings since 2010, which had included cutting staff from 9,000 to 3,500.

He then made the following key points:

- Plymouth City Council had submitted a bid, as lead authority and on behalf of Exeter and Torbay Unitary Councils, the eight district councils (including Torridge) and the county, to pilot the 100% business rate retention scheme;

- Learning disability was an area facing changes, wherby more money needed to be set aside in the budget as the government had changed the age range for children from five to 16, to nought to 25. This additional requirement would be funded from the general education fund;

- Per-pupil funding in Devon was still below the national average but it was moving closer. There was a deficit in special education and while the government encouraged education for 16 to 18 year olds no provision was made for their school transport;

- More money had been committed to repairing potholes and the Holsworthy area had been allocated £182,000 for road repairs and the resurfacing of the local road network. A different contractor was being employed who would ‘be much cheaper yet do a better job’;

lDCC was researching ways to do things differently; helping communities to help themselves; working with local partners to make the most of everybody’s resources and investing in Devon’s infrastructure and economy;

- The New Homes Bonus was due to be phased out by 2020;

- By 2020 the ‘Core Grant’ from the government would be cut to almost nothing.

Cllr Hart then invited questions. Ali Boyd, of DCC, and district councillor Phil Hackett raised the issue of poor mobile phone signals in some parts of the area. It was costing businesses, farmers couldn’t call a veterinary or fill in their DEFRA forms and smart meters didn’t work. They suggested it was bad for the economy too when visitors couldn’t get a signal. Cllr Hart thought coverage had improved but promised to refer the matter to the county’s economy team.

Cllr Hackett also wanted adults from villages to travel on school buses but Cllr Hart said that adults could travel on service buses but not on school buses. Ms Boyd advised that the economy team at DCC was looking at smart meters and she would provide an update.

Cllr Dean James said December 11 was the deadline for submitting responses to the Local Government Boundary Commission’s revised proposals for the new parliamentary constituencies.

Cllr Jim Lowe thought parish boundaries needed ‘tidying up’ as some parishes were too small to be viable. Cllr Margaret Coles thought Holsworthy and Tavistock in the same constituency was not a good idea as they were two different worlds. A constituency made up of Bude, Bideford, Holsworthy and Launceston would make sense but a cross border constituency was a sensitive issue.

Holsworthy Town Council’s clerk Vanessa Saunders asked what would happen to European funding post-Brexit. Cllr Hart said Devon did not receive the generous funding Cornwall had enjoyed. He feared there would be a big hole in the farming budget and currently they had a team working on the possible impact.

The NFU too was guessing what would be the effect of farmers losing their single payments. The impact was already being felt on houses, which were struggling to be sold. Builders would stop building if there were no sales and therefore no profit. Planning fees were going up by 20% and there was a big backlog of business rate appeals.