Plymouth looks to expand in new council role

Plymouth City Council will look at ways of geographically expanding as part of a national reorganisation of local government.

The government has ordered a restructuring of local councils with district and county councils swept away to make way for unitary councils.

Plymouth is already a unitary council but will now look to "expand the city footprint" as the government has indicated unitary councils should have a population of about 500,000.

Council leader Tudor Evans, Labour, also said an enlarged Plymouth unitary council should join with Cornwall and any other authorities in Devon to form a strategic authority with a directly-elected mayor.

At the time of the 2021 census, the population of Plymouth, England, which was about 265,000.

At a meeting on Thursday Evans told councillors the city needed to be ambitious in its plans to secure the widest range of powers and funding from reorganisation and devolution.

He said: "We need to look at strengthening Plymouth City Council's own position – making us of a sufficient size and scale to be able to sustainably deliver local services for local people in the future.

"Over the next couple of months, it is right that we will have to look at all the options that will enable us to increase our geographical footprint to be able to meet the expected government criteria."

Exeter has also said it wants to make an independent bid for unitary status in the restructuring.

The government has said it wants strategic authorities to have populations of about 1.5m.

In the 2021 census the combined population of Devon and Cornwall was 1.38m.

Evans said the benefits of a larger strategic authority encompassing all of Devon and Cornwall were "obvious" and spoke of "distinct geographic characteristics" and "clearly established economic connections".

He said: "By coming together to form a strategic authority we would have a combined population of 1.8 million residents, giving us a seat at the grown-up's table where we make sure the voice of all of our communities is heard."

On Thursday Devon County Council voted to ask for permission to postpone its May elections so that it could prepare for the restructuring and devolution.

At that meeting Conservative council leader James McInnes said he also wanted to see a strategic authority for Devon and Cornwall.

In the report prepared for that meeting by Devon County Council, chief executive Donna Manson said discussions with Cornwall had been ongoing but it had "not been possible to reach an agreement".

Final decisions on new council boundaries and strategic authorities will be made by the government.

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