WITH its strong historical and community links with Crediton, Crediton Hamlets Parish Council is objecting to losing part of its area in a Mid Devon District Council boundary reshuffle.

At its virtual meeting on Monday evening (November 2), Hamlets members looked at the Local Government Boundary Commission’s further draft recommendations for new electoral arrangements for Mid Devon.

This would leave Hamlets straddling more than one district council ward. It would take Hookway, Uton, Trobridge, part of Venny Tedburn and surrounding rural areas into a new proposed ward of Sandford and Newbrooke which would reach from Newton St Cyres to Sandford and Kennerleigh.

The Commission said that after it published its draft recommendations in February, the Mid Devon District Council Liberal Democrat Group and the Central Devon Liberal Democrats had outlined “significantly different boundaries” to those the Commission had proposed.

This is why the Commission has amended its proposals and published these new draft recommendations for the district council wards of Morchard, Newbrooke and Sandford, Taw Vale, Upper Yeo and Taw, and Way and Yeo. People have until November 9 to send in comments.

District Council member Derek Coren told the Hamlets council that he had sent letters of explanation to as many homes as he could in the affected area of Hamlets.

He said the proposed change would make it more complicated to administer. He felt this would be “a disaster” and he knew other councillors were “baffled” as to why the Liberal Democrats believed those areas had more in common with Sandford than Crediton and wanted to break it up.

He knew Sandford Parish Council had strongly objected to the proposed change and said the district council Conservatives had formally proposed keeping Crediton Hamlets parish together.

“It would mean potentially three district councillors representing different parts of our parish,” he added. “Crediton Hamlets has a lot of history and is the only Hamlets in Mid Devon. It has a rich history of links with Crediton.”

Chairman Cllr George Mortimer commented that he could quite see the parish being changed as a result because the proposed changes, if agreed, would make it unsustainable.

Cllr Coren replied that parish boundaries were “next on the agenda, not right away but in the not too distant future”.

It was said that Venny Tedburn would be split in half with part staying in its current ward and half joining the ward which covered Newton St Cyres and Kennerleigh.

Cllr Ruth Vigers observed: “You are not really gaining anything, it does not make sense. There are not the links the document says there are.”

Cllr Coren added that the new proposals were “a bolt out of the blue”. Saying Hamlets had “traditional links” with Crediton, Cllr Mortimer said these included the War Memorial in Crediton, the golf course, one of the main roads and would Newton St Cyres organise gritting roads around Hookway in the winter?

He said the area had been that of the Downes Estate which included Dunscombe Farm and a bit beyond. It had always been tied with Crediton.

Stressing how important it was for people to make comments to the draft proposals, Cllr Coren said the Commission said it took as much notice of individuals’ responses as of a parish council.

The council agreed to back Cllr Coren’s objections in a forthright manner and for members to make individual comments too.

To make comments before the November 9 deadline. You can do this at: https://consultation.lgbce.org.uk , by email: [email protected] or in writing at: Review Officer (Mid Devon), LGBCE, PO Box 133, BLYTH, NE24 9FE.