An update from council leader Julian Brazil - the Conservative administration at Devon County Council vote to cancel elections

An update from council leader Julian Brazil

The Conservative administration at Devon County Council have voted to cancel elections this May and remain in power for the foreseeable future. To hear them argue it was ‘for the good of the people and communities of Devon’ was enough to make you squirm. Sophistry of the highest order. You’re right, people just aren’t interested in Local Government Reorganisation (LGR,) but to have democracy denied is going too far.

We now have an unholy alliance of a stumbling new Labour Government and a failing Conservative administration conspiring to cancel elections. It’s all for the good of the people they claim. The government can still pull out of this folly. They say it would help devolution. It won’t, and even if it did, I’m not sure their idea of devolution is what we want anyway. More power and decisions by remote politicians. Planning decisions taken by officers with no local input, I don’t think so.

The Devon County Conservatives have already decided. They believe they are best placed to deliver what local people want but without asking them. Do the people of the South Hams see their future with Plymouth, Torbay or neither? No need to answer that, the ruling conservative county councillors already know what’s best. We should all just tug our forelocks and let them do their worst. It’s a heady mix of arrogance, entitlement and downright ignorance.