More than a third of all our member councils were represented at our online sessions on Devolution in January. It was very helpful to DALC to hear views from across the county and from all sizes of councils representing the whole spectrum of communities they serve.

If you’re reading this and you were unable to attend or want to check the comments that were made by other councils, go to the Knowledge Bank, Devolution, where you will find summaries of the smaller and larger councils’ discussions, along with other information that will help you get to grips with the issues involved. At present we have no further confirmed dates to tell you about but we are still hoping to arrange a further briefing session from NALC.

The deadline of submission of an interim plan for Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) by 21st March with a full proposal by 28^th November is confirmed in a letter to the leaders of all upper tier councils in Devon sent by Jim McMahon, Minister of State for Local Government and Devolution.  The Annex to the letter includes requirements on engagement with communities as well as the criteria for unitaries and the types of proposal that can be made.  You can read the letter here. Meanwhile, it is business as usual for all the local authorities and Devon County Council elections will go ahead on May 1^st for all 60 seats.

You can see that significant changes will be put forward in a very short time: changes to boundaries can be included in proposals.  Councils who think none of this will affect them are mistaken: it will affect us all.  DALC is gearing up to support councils through this process with extra staff time being devoted to arranging meetings and briefings for members as required; sending out information as soon as we have it; preparing for the additional training that is likely to be needed such as asset transfer and management.

To help DALC represent our members during the process and to promote the value of our sector, we want evidence of the work that councils do and what they would like to do.  So here’s a reminder: please sent us your council pen portrait by the end of February, one side of A4 or less, answering these three questions:

• What is important to your community, what makes it tick?
• What do you currently do for your community?
• What would you like to do for your community, given the chance?

Thank you and thanks to all those councils who have already sent theirs in.  Please continue to contact DALC with your thoughts and suggestions as well as with requests for information and advice to support the work you already do. You can e-mail information to enquiries@devonalc.org.uk.

Don’t forget to see all our devolution updates in our Knowledge Bank.