AROUND 30 residents attended the inaugural meeting of the Campaign for Local Democracy in Mid Devon during the evening of Thursday, April 4.

Several serving councillors were present, as were a number of candidates in the forthcoming elections, from all parties and none.

Mid Devon District Council alderman, David Nation, welcomed people and gave the background to the initiative.

He explained that the decision last year to sell the historic council building in Crediton against the clear wishes of the majority of the District Council led to the formation of a group of residents determined to campaign hard for the Council to change to a more democratic form of governance.

He acknowledged the great work done by the late Councillor Jenny Roach of Silverton some years ago towards the same reform, which sadly did not succeed.

He introduced Cllr Nikki Woollatt who co-led that campaign with Jenny and said that he was sure the campaign could benefit from her input.

Several of those present gave examples of where they felt the Cabinet had made decisions that they were aware were contrary to the wishes of many of their colleagues.

Others told of cases their councillors had said they could not take up because the leadership would not approve of them doing so.

The meeting agreed overwhelmingly that it wished to campaign for reform and decided in the first instance to contact all candidates in the upcoming elections to seek their views on options.

Some present thought that the current Cabinet system might be acceptable if its decisions could be over-ruled by a majority vote in full council.

If not, the preference was likely to be replacing the Cabinet system, where six councillors make all the decisions and the remaining 36 have little say, with a committee structure involving all councillors.

Many wondered whether the new Council would have a more enlightened view which may lead to them switching to a committee structure voluntarily.

The group agreed to allow the new council to be elected on May 4 to settle in and, should there be no indication that it would consider the reform, to decide then whether to distribute a petition calling for a referendum requiring the change to committees.

Currently 3,069 signatures are required and the group members were confident they could obtain those well within the time limit of one year.

The group agreed to meet in June but in the meantime is seeking effective ways of publicising its objectives as much as possible, including developing social media and possibly a website.

The need for a small fund to finance necessary expenditure was discussed and a collection of £86.15 was made towards the hire of the room for this meeting and future costs.

Afterwards Mrs Judy Tucker of Crediton said: "I was delighted with the public response and the excellent attendance at this meeting and I am confident that we will have sufficient helpers to gather the necessary signatures to the petition for a referendum, should that be necessary."