NEWTON Abbot MP Martin Wrigley has called the division of Teignbridge Council ‘bonkers’.

He said he was ‘very disappointed’ in the Government’s decision to split the authority and hive off its parishes to two neighbouring authorities and one newly created Devon Coast and Countryside Council.

The announcement by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government will mean a complete revision of the existing local authority set up.

Mr Wrigley said: ‘Time after time MPs have stood up and said this has been managed so Labour councils remain Labour councils.

‘This is not a great outcome for Devon and the vast majority is being left behind.

‘None of it makes any sense, it’s completely mad and not sensible.

‘I don’t know what it’s going to achieve but it will cost a lot of money.’

He predicted at least one of the new councils will go bust.

The plans will mean residents will become part of one of three new councils: Exeter Council, Torbay Council or Devon Coast and Countryside Council, depending on where they live.

The decision represents one of the biggest changes to local government in Devon in decades and that Teignbridge will no longer exist.