Proposed Structural Changes
In December 2007, the Department for Communities and Local Government referred Exeter City Council's bid to become a unitary council to the Boundary Committee for England, as they felt the application did not meet all their strict criteria. This would mean Devon County Council, headquartered in Exeter, would have no local governmental control on the City of Exeter. The Boundary Committee was asked to look at the feasibility of a unitary Exeter in the context of examining options for unitary arrangements in the wider Devon county area, and reported back in July 2008 recommending a 'unitary Devon' (excluding Plymouth and Torbay), with a second option of a 'unitary Exeter & Exmouth' (combined) and a unitary 'rest of Devon'. This would abolish lower-tier district councils which work together with Devon County Council. These proposals were put out to consultation until September 2008 and the Committee was expected to make final recommendations to the Secretary of State by the end of the year. As a result of a number of legal challenges to the process and also dissatisfaction on the part of the Secretary of State with the manner in which the Boundary Committee assessed proposals, a recommendation was unlikely until March or April 2009.
The Boundary Committee were delayed again following legal challenge by a group of councils in the county of Suffolk. The Court of Appeal rejected the legal challenge in December 2009 and the Boundary Committee will return to making recommendations on the proposals, to be published at an unknown date.
On 10 February 2010, local government ministers gave the go-ahead for Exeter's unitary authority status and ruled out the chance of Devon's unitary authority status, leaving it as a rural county. However, following the 2010 general election the new government announced in May 2010 that the reorganisation would be blocked.
See also: Local Government Act 2010Read more about this topic: Devon County Council
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