A Christmas ice rink is among the items on a shopping list from councillors after a local authority ended the financial year with a surplus of £350,000. Torbay Council’s cabinet has drawn up a number of items which the authority could pay for after being told various departments had contributed to an underspend in the...
Bob Dale BBC News, South East Getty Images Zia Yusuf announced the first raft of council audits late on Sunday Reform has announced it will send its first Elon Musk-style Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) team into local authorities to assess “wasteful spending”. The party said the first council to be audited will be Kent...
Martyn Oates BBC South West political editor BBC Political parties in both Devon and Cornwall will need to form coalitions to run their respective councils As the dust settles on local elections in Devon and Cornwall, Martyn Oates considers what the results mean for the political picture in the South West. Two councils slipping into...
Joshua Nevett Political reporter BBC Sam Revell said she was placed in “horrendous” temporary accommodation Councils are exposing homeless children to serious health and safeguarding risks by housing them in unsuitable temporary accommodation, an inquiry by MPs has found. MPs said a “crisis in temporary accommodation” in England had left a record 164,000 children without...
Devon’s eleven councils have less than five weeks to develop a joint proposal for local government reorganisation covering the whole of Devon, Plymouth and Torbay after local government minister Jim McMahon invited them to submit their initial plans by 21 March. In a letter sent earlier this month to all Devon’s council CEOs and leaders,...