The Council will hold 'Challenge Rounds' every year to enable relevant groups to submit Challenges to the Council, to take on the running of local services. If a Challenge is accepted, it will trigger an open procurement process for any bidder to win the contract to deliver the service.
It should be noted that using this Right does not guarantee local service delivery. The Challenge process has to allow private companies to bid alongside community groups to run Council services.
Currently, all the Council's services can be challenged by the above bodies, under the Right to Challenge but by law, some services have to be carried out by the District/Borough Council, for example decisions on planning applications.
In this case, the processing of the applications could be challenged, but the decision-making would have to remain a function of the District/Borough Council.
If you believe your community group would like to use the Right to Challenge and want further details of the process, please see our page on How to use the Community Right to Challenge. You can find a link from this page.
If you are thinking about submitting an expression of interest we would welcome an informal approach in the first instance, please contact the Community Team: community@swdevon.gov.uk.
