DEVON is being carved up, and it is our rural communities who will pay for it.

The Government has confirmed plans to hand Exeter, Plymouth and Torbay much larger boundaries, while everywhere else — including Crediton and the villages around it — is lumped into one enormous rural authority.

It is hard to see this as anything other than a two-tier settlement: growing city councils gaining land, homes and taxpayers, and a residual countryside council left to cope with the rest.

The plan treats Dartmoor and Tiverton as if they face the same pressures as Ilfracombe or Seaton simply because they will sit in the same new authority.

Anyone who knows Devon knows that is not how our communities work.

Crediton in particular has its own identity, its own high street and its own sense of place. It is not a suburb waiting to be absorbed into Exeter to shore up somebody else’s books.

The figures published alongside the decision should worry every taxpayer, not just those of us in rural wards.

The enlarged Exeter authority is expected to start with barely any financial headroom, and the reorganisation itself carries a bill in the region of £70 million — money that will be spent on new logos, IT systems and redundancies before a single extra pothole is filled or care package delivered.

Nobody has yet said plainly how much council tax will rise to cover it, and children’s services, mid-way through a hard-won improvement programme, are being put at unnecessary risk.

We will be studying the Government’s reasoning and evidence closely, and will not rule out further challenge if residents’ interests have been overlooked.

Devolution should mean real power moving closer to people, not bigger, more remote authorities imposed from Westminster. Devon deserves better than this.

Cllr Steve Keable

Devon County Council, Creedy

Taw & Mid-Exe

Cllr Jim Cairney

Devon County Council

Crediton