West Devon Borough Council has denied a report in a national newspaper that a member of staff has been working remotely for several years from the Mediterranean party island of Ibiza.

Titled ‘Working for a Devon council from Ibiza — how did the Zoom calls go?’, the article published in The Times on December 31 by Robert Crampton claims that one West Devon borough council worker was based in Ibiza from March 2020 – the month the Covid lockdown started – until February 2024.

Crampton says that the information was revealed on December 30 2024 by Freedom of Information requests that at least 731 applications to ‘work from the beach’ were approved by UK councils in 2023.

Crampton wrote: “Let me take a guess at the issues West Devon council has to grapple with: lack of affordable housing; shocking rural public transport services; an overreliance on low-skills seasonal employment; pockets of deprivation suffering high levels of crime and anti-social behaviour combined with poor health and educational outcomes; isolated elderly people; polluted waterways; cheesed-off farmers. It is not immediately obvious how any of these problems can be better dealt with from Ibiza than Tavistock.”

He concluded the article with: “One of the advantages of the British winner takes all/local constituency system is that the MP therefore has a close affinity with his or her electorate. Most of us think such a connection is important. It’s why we prefer politicians to live in, or near, their seat. And it’s why we think council workers in Devon should live in Devon and not in, er, Ibiza.”

In response, a spokesperson from West Devon Borough Council said the article was “incorrect reporting” and that they “did not have a member of West Devon Borough Council working from Ibiza”.