South Hams District Council Leader John Tucker has explained the possible merger with West Devon Borough Council and its impact on rates.

Councillors are currently discussing how the merger might work and looking at a potential increase in council tax in the South Hams, to raise the council tax rate to the same rate that West Devon residents pay, because at the moment West Devon residents pay more than South Hams residents.

This is something that the government would require us to do, so that all residents in the new council area would pay the same district council element of their council tax bill.

South Hams would like to help residents understand the discussion that councillors are currently having, and have issued this explanation of how council tax works and what services residents get for their money.

A resident who lives in an average band D property currently pays approximately £1,737 a year in Council Tax. Only £155 of that goes to South Hams, the rest goes to Devon County Council, Town and Parish Councils, and the emergency services, such as the police and fire and rescue service.

If you live in a band D property, your £155 paid to South Hams goes towards providing the following services:

Business Rates collection

Business Support

Car Parks

Community Safety

Council Tax collection

Dartmouth Lower Ferry

Dartmouth Park and Ride

Hire of facilities for meetings and training courses

Building maintenance service

Local land charge searches

Markets Trading on council land

Planning and Planning Enforcement

Trade waste

Tree preservation

Community Right to Bid (Assets of Community Value)

Street cleaning

 

Elections

Environmental Health (Food safety, noise nuisance, air quality monitoring, contaminated land, private water supply testing, pests, emergency planning etc)

Fly tipping on public land (enforcement and clearance)

Grants (Disabled Facilities Grants, Community Grants etc)

Grounds Maintenance - Parks & Amenity Spaces

Support and advice for events

Salcombe Harbour

Strategic Planning (Joint Local Plan,

Street naming and numbering

 

Dog control/ stray dog service

Housing (housing advice, housing options, homelessness, affordable housing, housing grants and loans)*

Housing Benefit

Leisure (Leisure centres are operated by Fusion Lifestyle)

Licensing (applying for a licence, advice on licensed activities and premises etc)

Litter bins

Play parks on council land

Public toilets

Recycling and Refuse collections

Neighbourhood Planning etc)

Cllr John Tucker, Leader of South Hams said: “Looking at that list, I believe that we are delivering exceptional value for money. For just £155 on an average band D property we have continued to provide good levels of service for all of the services that we are obliged to provide by law and in many cases providing well above that level.

“Let’s not forget that we continue to deliver all of these services despite cuts to the funding that we get from central government. However we cannot continue to deliver our services at this level of council tax, so we need to make some tough decisions now.

“By working in partnership with West Devon as one organisation, sharing one workforce, we are already protecting these services by making £6 million of savings every year, but unfortunately more needs to be done.

“Since we have been talking about now extending this arrangement and creating one new council, there has been a lot of speculation and talk amongst some residents, that a split with West Devon might protect South Hams and its assets long term. This is simply not an option for us.

“We are so interlinked with West Devon, that if we were to reverse the current shared service arrangement, we would also reverse the current savings we make every year through this arrangement. Any benefits or savings we have made through our transformation would also be lost”

“South Hams could increase their council tax to make it the same rate as West Devon, who already pay more than South Hams every year. They have looked at a number of options to make it as painless as possible for the residents and councillors are now considering two options either to increase council tax by £25.99 every year for 3 years or £17.59 every year for 5 years.

“This would be either a 1.4% or a 0.9 % increase on the whole bill per year. So a person living in a band D property would see their bill increase from approximately £155 now to £186 or £178 from 2019 onwards, plus what the other organisations such as the county council or police, town and parish councils and fire services might add.

“This increase could generate an extra income for the new council of somewhere between £1 million and 2.5 million every year, depending on which option the council decides. This money could then be invested back into the communities, perhaps into affordable housing as well as improving services.

“Over the next two weeks councillors at both South Hams and West Devon are debating this issue and discussing how they can continue to provide services and secure the future for both authorities.

Cllr Tucker concluded: “I think this additional income presents some exciting opportunities for us to focus on investing in our communities for the future, we have been unable to do this for a while because of the cuts.

“However, at this point nothing has been decided, both councils would have to agree to a public consultation, so we better understand your thoughts on this proposal and then if agreed at a further meetings in the autumn, we would submit a proposal to the secretary of state, who would make the final decision.”?South Hams will be discussing the issues at their Executive meeting on Thursday, July 20th and possibly then at Full Council on Thursday, July 27th.