AS we enter the last month of 2022 I look back and see a tumultuous 12 months. Devon County Council has lost five senior officers in that time. This is rather disturbing as we all like continuity.

I have attended several important county meetings and will give a summary of the good and not so good news.

It seems that Covid is posing less of a problem at the moment. Last month there were 95 people in hospitals throughout Devon with Covid of whom two were on ventilators.

The vaccination programme is going very well with a high take up of all ages.

One of the County’s scrutiny groups is to set up a focused task group to look at speeding and road safety.

We were pleased to hear that during the past year traffic collision numbers are down (we must not call them accidents).

Money or lack of it is a big concern as officers and members look at balancing the budget for the current year and to set the budget for 2023-2024.

One thing I can guarantee and that is that we shall be paying more next year.

In order to help councils, central government will allow them to increase council tax up to three per cent (two per cent last year) and precept for social care to two per cent (one per cent last year). Each one per cent of the precept is equal to just over £4 million.

In order to achieve a balanced budget, Devon County Council will need to do two things; obviously council tax etc will increase, but this will not be enough.

The council will be looking at cuts in services and possible redundancies. We have hard times ahead!

Now that winter is here, I shall not be holding my surgeries so if anyone has any problems you can email or telephone me.

I will take this opportunity to send you season’s greetings!

I hope you stay warm enough and have enough to eat and drink.

Contact details email: [email protected] and telephone 01363 775739 which has a simple call guard system.

Cllr. Frank Letch MBE