DEVON’S new local government shake-up has been blasted as a ‘disaster for rural Devon’ by environment watchdogs.

The county will be re-organised into four unitary authorities from April 2028, with Devon county and all of the county’s district councils being abolished.

Plymouth’s boundaries will spread east into the South Hams while Exeter expands to take in parts of Teignbridge, East Devon and Mid Devon.

A new unitary, probably called Torbay and Southern Devon, will serve the bay, parts of Teignbridge and some towns and parishes from the South Hams.

The rest of Devon, stretching from Prawle Point to Ilfracombe and from the Cornish border to Dorset, will become a vast new ‘Devon Coast and Countryside’ unitary authority.

Now the CPRE, which was formerly known as the Campaign to Protect Rural England, says the change will damage the heart of Devon.

County CPRE chairman Steve Crowther said: “Of course, the urban unitaries are welcoming this, because they’ve expanded their empires and claim they can cut council tax by removing costs.

“But what they are not telling you is that a vast rural area like Devon requires its few urban settlements to help pay the enormous costs of roads, education, social care etc in the 2,500 square miles that are left now they have opted out.

“This has been described as a disaster by all the leaders and representatives not involved in those three enclaves, because they know that an area stretching from Salcombe to Lynton, from Hartland to Axminster is going to have a monumental struggle to provide the services it needs without a significant urban contribution.

“Plus, the ‘local’ planning authority for many people will be 50 miles away.”

Mr Crowther said there were areas of rural Devon which had some of the lowest incomes in the entire country.

Livestock-grazing farmers have seen average incomes drop to less than £23,000 in recent years.

“You can make more on benefits, without having to work 12-hour days, 365 days a year to maintain this glorious Devon landscape that’s loved and valued by people from all over England,” he added.

“This plan clearly demonstrates, yet again, that Westminster has no understanding whatever of what happens outside the cities, of the precarious economics of rural England in general and Devon in particular, and cares even less.

“The government really needs to tell us, without delay, how they are going to ensure that rural Devonians don’t have a massive increase in their taxes in return for a reduction in essential services.”