Massive expansion for Plymouth, Exeter and Torbay

Plymouth, Exeter and Torbay will all expand to take on council services in surrounding areas in the biggest changes to local government for more than 50 years.

Towns like Ivybridge and some villages in the South Hams will form part of a Greater Plymouth Council with Exeter set to take over the running of coastal towns like Exmouth and Dawlish while Torbay will expand in all directions.

The rest of Devon - from Holsworthy in the west to Seaton in the east - will be bundled together to form one new council responsible for everything from waste and recycling to libraries and housing.

The changes were announced in Westminster on Thursday as part of a national local government reorganisation.

Devon County Council leader Julian Brazil said the county had been "betrayed".

"This is a deceitful decision," he said. "People in Devon, their council tax will be going up and their quality of services will be going down.

"It's also going to cost tens of millions to implement.

"That money is going to be spent on breaking contracts, making people redundant and then rehiring them.

"We're almost certainly going to take it to judicial review."

All of the district and county councils across the country are being abolished to make way for unitary authorities as part of the government's plans for the reorganisation of local government.

In Plymouth and Torbay, all council services are run by unitary authorities that are already in place - Plymouth City Council and Torbay Council.

Elsewhere in Devon, this means instead of a two-tier system where council services are split between district and county councils, there will be unitary authorities - each responsible for all services and decisions on issues from bin collections and fixing potholes to social care and planning.

Plymouth, Exeter and Torbay all backed the plan to have three urban councils and one covering rural areas.

In a joint bid, Plymouth and Exeter said the plans would give Plymouth "the scale" to unlock "growth and opportunity" and would make Exeter a "stronger urban centre, able to coordinate development across its natural economic area".

The bid said the plans would "unlock the potential of our two cities and the three towns in Torbay to turbocharge economic growth and prosperity for the nation and drive the dynamism of our coast and countryside communities".

Torbay wanted to retain its current boundaries but will now expand to take in parishes from Kingswear to the south and Teignmouth to the north.

All of the district councils wanted to see three unitary councils, known as the 4-5-1, deal with Plymouth as a standalone authority and the rest of Devon split in two.

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