Thankfully, the South Hams council tax payers seem to have been saved by the councillors in West Devon.

This has been an ill-conceived and badly run exercise in a sham consultation, which produced a result the SHDC leader didn’t like.

Cllr John Tucker clearly has misread the political situation in West Devon and should consider his position as leader, perhaps even as a councillor in the South Hams.

With that in mind, SHDC needs a new leader who can recover from the mistakes made and take us forward to make the savings necessary to balance the budget and separate ourselves from West Devon.

If there is no one to do that, perhaps SHDC should abolish itself?

We managed perfectly well before district councils were invented by Ted Heath, and could manage again.

R Springett

Seymour Drive, Dartmouth