Will Torbay be 'wiped out' in government shake-up of councils?

Bay may need to absorb neighbours to meet population target

Torbay could be wiped off the map in the rush to reorganise local government.

The leader of the bay’s council says he isn’t sure its identity will survive the shake-up of local authorities over the next couple of years.

The government wants to streamline councils across the country, effectively eliminating district councils like South Hams and Teignbridge while new, larger unitary authorities deliver services instead.

Torbay is already a unitary authority, but is much smaller than the unitaries the government envisages. This means its boundaries may spread to absorb neighbouring district councils, and its name could change for the first time in nearly 60 years.

“Whatever we end up with, it might not be called Torbay,” said council leader David Thomas (Con, Preston). “A new unitary authority could potentially be significantly wider than Torbay.”

The government’s white paper on reorganisation and devolution talks about populations of around half a million people for each new unitary authority. Torbay’s population is around 140,000.

“We have got to get significantly larger in order to qualify,” said Cllr Thomas. “We’ve got to get to 350,000 or 450,000, and we’re not going to be able to get anywhere near that figure until we start looking at Teignbridge, South Hams and West Devon.”

The combined population of Torbay, Teignbridge, South Hams and West Devon is currently around 422,000. To complicate matters further, South Hams councillors have already spoken about Plymouth City Council eyeing parts of their territory.

Plymouth has a population of 265,000, and so could need to absorb other areas in order to meet the unitary requirements.

“Whatever happens here needs to work for North Devon, Torridge and East Devon as well,” said Cllr Thomas. “It has got to work for everybody, and I don’t think a single unitary for the whole of Devon is the right answer.”

Torbay Council was created in April 1968 to replace the municipal borough of Torquay, the urban districts of Brixham and Paignton and the civil parish of Churston Ferrers.

In April 1974 local government was reorganised again, and Torbay became a borough council while keeping the same boundaries and handing control of some services to Devon County Council.

Torbay regained its independence from the county council in April 1998, becoming a unitary authority in charge of its own services. Between 2005 and 2019 the council had a directly elected mayor, but has since gone back to having a council leader with a cabinet.