A unitary Devon, serving 750,000 residents, would have the second largest population after Birmingham. It would be over four times as large as the average English unitary authority but with far fewer councillors per head and cover a much, much wider area. Devon residents would have the worst level of democratic representation in the country and face huge disruption of services with a massive £74.3m bill for the change. There are outline proposals, based on 2007 estimates, to recover those costs over a five year period whilst also reducing council tax to the current lowest level across Devon and improving all district-based services to the best level currently available in the county. South Hams currently has the third lowest council tax in Devon.

Local government in our area works well. Our track record of high performance will be put at risk from the trauma of reorganisation, with no guarantee that its replacement will be successful. You are being asked to take a huge leap of faith that the proposal will be better than the current arrangements. Is big beautiful?