West Devon is the smallest district authority in Devon and the Alliance of Councillors now running the Council have been forced to cut £200,00 from their meagre budget for services to their public from April 2025.

Cllr. Mandy Ewings, who is Leader of the Council tried to rally her colleague Councillor troops, urging them to continue doing their best with the finances they have to hand for the time being. She put the blame fairly with the current Labour Government for this situation. The language she used to describe the situation WDBC found itself in was quire animated and emotional. She claimed that they (the Government) is trying to "squeeze" rural councils until they "bleed dry" as it presses ahead with local government re-organisation.

The Scrutiny and Overview Committe of the Council were told last week in the run up to the Full Council Budget Meeting, that rural councils are receiving very little from new recovery grants, setup by the current Government to support local services and indeed the vast majority of the grants were earmarked for substantially urban areas and in the North West of the Country.

Specifically, the current Government has withdrawn the rural services delivery grant. This grant, which acknowledged that it cost more to provide certain services such as rubbish collection, in rural areas as opposed to in towns, was worth £600,000 to the Council. This reduction in Grant will likely cause a £1.6 million pound budget gap for the following year, 2026 to 2027.

Overall, since 2010, the core funding for services in West Devon has not just flatlined or not kept pace with inflation, it has actually decreased by £3 million under successive Governments of any political persuasion. The Council has tried to manage by cutting costs through sharing services and costs with Soth Hams while on the other hand increasing income where it can by putting up car parking charges and charging more for garden waste collections.

The O and S Committee has recommended to the Full Council budget setting meeting in February that a Council Tax rise of 2.99 percent be requested, which is the maximum that can be asked for without running a full referendum.