Councillors and Clerks from all three tiers of local government came together for the first ever Salcombe Division Parish Assembly.

It felt like a Conference of the Parties - likeminded people committed to public service - no politics- people first.

We agreed on the importance of pooling resources and experience to proactively develop the ability of Neighbourhood Area Committees to protect local democracy.

An NAC is a new body that will sit between the Unitary Authority and parish/town councils.

The NAC will represent local needs and how services are funded locally. They must not be a talking shop - they need muscle.

They will seek advice from the most successful NACs elsewhere on where their focus our lobbying power now to ensure our NAC is designed to meet our needs.

Modbury parish council offered to host the next Salcombe Division Parish Assembly in January.

Our District Councillors, Cllr Mark Long and Cllr Lee Bonham will seek to organise a wider meeting of Mayors, Chairs and Clerks from all parishes and towns in South Hams to emulate yesterday's meeting.

Time to roll up those sleeves and get ready for whats coming.

We want to ensure the voices of small rural and coastal communities are heard when the Unitary Authority is imposed on us from above and SHDC and DCC are abolished.

When the dust of LGR settles - there will always be parish and town councils... we are the foundation of local government and the closest to our communities.

Paul Arnott, DCC cabinet member for Local Government Reorganisation, spoke openly about his concerns that smaller parishes risk being marginalised without an effective NAC.

He applauded the endeavours of those present to better understand how parishes could be best represented on the NAC to protect local democracy.

There is still time to lobby to co-design how NAC will work and how we will be represented.

He thinks this type of meeting should be happening across Devon to champion local democracy through well-designed NAC.