A DECISION on whether to allow Devon County Council to delay May’s county elections is expected within days, according to two sources.

A pair of Devon MPs from different political parties have told the Local Democracy Reporting Service a statement is expected in the House of Commons on Monday, February 3 that should outline which councils will be able to postpone their elections, including Devon.

Conservative-led Devon County Council voted to ask the government to postpone the local elections for a year, with its leader Cllr James McInnes (Conservative, Hatherleigh and Chagford) claiming it would give the authority time to consider its response to the government’s plans for the reorganisation of local councils.

In December, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced plans to create a new structure to replace the two-tier system of counties and districts in places such as Devon.

The county has eight district councils and a county council that oversee different services across the same geographic area; Plymouth and Torbay are already separate unitary councils running all their services.

The government invited local authorities to apply to postpone local elections if they could either submit plans by May, or by the autumn, depending on the circumstances.

Speaking in parliament this week, Jim McMahon, minister for local government and English devolution, said requests from councils to postpone elections would “only be considered where it is clear that postponement will help the area to deliver reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeframe”.

The word reorganisation refers to the two-tier system being changed into a unitary system, while the phrase devolution relates to elected mayors overseeing more than one of these unitary councils in what are set to be called “mayoral strategic authorities”.

At an extraordinary meeting of Devon’s full council in January, 37 members voted to apply to postpone the election. Twelve councillors voted against.

Bradley Gerrard