The consultation for One Council ends on Sunday, and it looks like the weight of feeling in the South Hams is against the merger of South Hams and West Devon Councils.

Cllr John Tucker, leader of SHDC, said that the council finds itself in a “difficult position” and “struggling for finance”, and said that the proposal to merge South Hams District Council and West Devon Borough Council was for “financial reasons”.

He called the merger was SHDC’s “last real option we’ve got to be able to fill our budget from 2020 onwards”. He said that West Devon will “hit the buffers in a couple of years’ time” but because we share our workforce, with a projected “half a million of savings a year” with the creation of one council.

He said that the council tax between the two councils would need to equalise, with council tax increasing for South Hams residents by an average of £63 to bring it up to the same level as is paid in West Devon.

Cllr Tucker said this would “help West Devon out and help us [SHDC] out in the long term too”.

Cllr Simon Wright, deputy leader of SHDC, said: “We’ve been joined up for a number of years, we share the same officers. There is an awful lot of duplication going on. If we formalise it we can save this half a million a year, it will cost us £325,000 but then we will save £500,000 every year.”

SHDC and West Devon’s executive director Steve Jorden told South Brent Parish Council there were “no plans” for a new office, and he would advise his councillors against using hard-earned cash for the purpose.

Mr Jorden attended South Brent’s full council meeting last week. He told councillors SHDC was having to decide how to deal with further cuts in government funding, on top of what they had already had.

SHDC members were clear they did not want front line cuts, and Mr Jorden said officers’ advice had been to do something “fairly drastic”. In his view, he said, this was the only option.

The consequences of not making the savings involved in One Council could include increased car parking charges, changes to or less frequent refuse collection and a loss of community grants, Mr Jorden said. The aim was to reach a situation where they no longer had to rely on government funding.

Mr Jorden said an independent company was running the consultation to ensure it was unbiased. He said the Government wanted the two councils to show they had listened to the public, but they were "not bound by it".

Opponents of the plan have criticised the required council tax rise of an average of £63 for South Hams residents, claiming that a £30 rise would fill the budget deficit for South Hams and the difference will just be used to bail out West Devon Borough Council.

Kingsbridge Town Council unanimously voted to send South Hams their response as: “We [Kingsbridge Town Council] do not support the proposal of creating a one new council for the West Devon and South Hams areas.

“We see there no benefits and only disadvantages to households in the South Hams and we believe the consultation is deeply flawed.”

Mayor of Dartmouth, Councillor Richard Cooke, told the council “It’s a done deal really” after he and Dartmouth Town Clerk, Charlie Pritchard-Williams, attended a One Council consultation for mayors and clerks. In a later meeting, Dartmouth Town Councillor Springett proposed to “reject the move to merge” South Hams and West Devon, which was seconded by Cllr Gent and passed by a majority.

In Ivybridge, the town council accepted “reluctantly” that the controversial plan to join the two authorities was likely to become reality.

Salcombe Town Council asked SHDCllr Judy Pearce what South Hams has to gain from the One Council merger, to which she replied “I’m finding that hard to answer”. Salcombe Town Council is unanimous in its opposition to the merger.

In the smaller parish councils, East Allington were “unanimously opposed”, saying they had “strong concerns on the implications of such a merger now and in the future”, while Aveton Gifford and Ringmore were “not in favour” of the creation of One Council.

South Brent parish council commented on the consultation, with former parish council chairman Cllr Greg Wall saying that the lack of consultation over previous years as the two councils became closer meant people had been “disenfranchised and disempowered”.

Kingswear had a proposal on the table to support the merger, which was seconded but defeated. It was defeated with a vote of five against, three for and one abstention from Cllr Jonathan Hawkins, as he is also a district councillor.

Churchstow gave a “resounding NO to the merger”, while Buckland Tout-Saints thought SHDC should “consider other alternatives before going any further with a merger” and Loddiswell was “unanimously opposed”.

Malborough voted to tell SHDC they “do not support the proposal under any circumstances”, a move which was carried unanimously, and South Huish said “SHPC is wholly against One Council”.

Stokenham responded, saying: “the costs of a merger are unacceptably high, the risks are unquantifiable, and the benefits are unconvincing, all of which we feel makes it an unacceptable imposition on the council tax payers of the South Hams.”

Ermington Parish voted unanimously against the proposals. In a lengthy discussion involving members of the public, local SHDC ward member Cllr Tom Holway and colleague Cllr Nicky Hopwood there was almost universal scepticism over the plans.

Parish councillors felt strongly that the way individual SHDC councillors voted should be recorded and made public. They also felt that as their local representative Cllr Holway should vote against the proposals, if all his parishes were against it.

There was a strong feeling that there was nothing in the proposals that would benefit the South Hams.

North Huish Parish Council voted to object to the plans for One Council. Councillors expressed the wish for the situation to continue as it is, the clerk said.

A spokesman for Brixton Parish Council said: "Following a presentation by SHDC leader John Tucker and deputy leader Simon Wright, Brixton Parish Council voted to support the proposed merger, as there is no realistic financial alternative for both councils for the future.

"In supporting the proposal Brixton Parish Council requests that serious consideration is given to not losing the identity or name of South Hams from any future naming of the new authority."

Newton and Noss Parish Council voted unanimously against the merger at its meeting on September 7.

Yealmpton Parish Council minuted that “this council does not support the proposal of One Council to replace South Hams and West Devon”.

The consultation can be seen and commented on on the One Council website, and paper copies are available from council offices. The public consultation will end on Sunday, October 8, and SHDC will discuss the findings of the consultation at Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday, October 12, at 10am.

The full council will then discuss the proposal on Tuesday, October 31, which is when members will decide whether or not to send their recommendation to the secretary of state Sajid Javid MP.