County Councillor Report – September/October 2026
Dear Parish Councillors,
September has been another exceptionally busy month. Major developments around South West Water, the continuing suspension of birthing services at North Devon District Hospital, and the sudden pause in Local Government Reorganisation have required significant attention, while there has finally been tangible progress on two of the long-running A377 landslips. Alongside this I have continued my work on Health and Adult Care Scrutiny, Children's Scrutiny, highways, drainage, and individual casework across the division.
South West Water
I have continued to press South West Water hard over sewage pollution, leaks, and the condition of our water infrastructure.
On 29th September 2026, South West Water was fined £7.8 million following an Environment Agency prosecution covering 18 pollution-related offences between 2015 and 2021. Seventeen charges related to illegal water discharges and one to a failure to take reasonable remedial action after a pumping-station failure. The company was also ordered to pay £330,000 in costs. The Environment Agency described it as the largest environmental fine ever imposed in the region.
This comes alongside the concerns I have continued to raise about storm-overflow activity locally. Following my information requests, South West Water told me in September that its August near-real-time Event Duration Monitor data was still awaiting validation. That leaves an obvious problem: residents can see alarming live information about possible discharges, but may then have to wait weeks for the company to confirm what actually happened.
I have also strongly challenged South West Water's application for a drought permit at Wimbleball Reservoir. The Environment Agency confirmed that the company applied on 16th September to reduce the compensation flow from the reservoir, with Wimbleball remaining at drought level 2. South West Water's own drought plan identifies this option as potentially retaining around 9 million litres of water per day for supply.
I recognise that this has been an exceptionally dry summer and that drinking-water supplies have to be protected, but compensation flows exist for a reason. February was the wettest on record, yet SWW didn’t manage to capture and store enough water to get through the summer. The River Exe is an ecosystem, not simply another part of the water company's supply network. I have been arguing that fixing leaks and investing properly in infrastructure must come before reducing water available to the natural environment. For context, these 9 million litres of water a day has the potential to raise the water level in Wimbleball by 8%, whereas fixing the 100 million litres a day worth of leaks could fill the reservoir twice a year.
I am now preparing a Motion of No Confidence in South West Water for Devon County Council, calling for much more fundamental reform of the company and for Government to explore transferring it into public-benefit ownership without saddling that new organisation with the historic debts accumulated by the existing company. I have also made clear that fines imposed for corporate failures must not simply find their way back onto customers' bills.
Local Government Reorganisation paused
There has been an extraordinary change in the Local Government Reorganisation process.
On 7th September, the Government announced that it would review and pause the proposed reorganisation of Devon, Plymouth and Torbay. This put on hold the four-unitary model that was confirmed only a few weeks earlier. Devon County Council has subsequently sought clarity from Government about exactly what the pause means and has deferred a decision on commencing judicial review proceedings while preserving the option of legal action if required.
The County Council is also asking Government to reimburse councils for the costs already incurred preparing for reorganisation. The original implementation estimate was £70.1 million across Devon, with more recent work suggesting the eventual cost could have approached £90 million.
In my role as Chair of the County Council's LGR Scrutiny Committee, I am working to quantify exactly how much has been spent on this process so far. We put aside £30 million from our strategic reserves earlier this month, but this doesn’t take into account the hundreds of officer hours.
I remain concerned about the considerable amount of public money and officer time that has already been committed to a process which was progressing at enormous speed before suddenly being paused. Scrutiny must now focus on ensuring that any next steps are based on clear evidence, proper consultation, and the interests of Devon's communities. Government has questions to answer as we are currently stuck in limbo, waiting for a possible “unpause” at any moment.
North Devon District Hospital maternity services
The suspension of birthing services at North Devon District Hospital remains one of my biggest concerns.
Royal Devon had originally hoped to reopen the service on 29th September, but told the special Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee on 24th September that staffing had not yet reached the level required for a safe reopening. The Trust was unable to provide a new reopening date, although it remains committed to restoring the service and has promised fortnightly updates.
Between the suspension beginning on 11th August and 15th September, 106 births took place under the alternative arrangements. Fewer than five births occurred outside labour and delivery environments, with a healthcare professional present in each case. This includes babies being born in a waiting room, or in the back of an ambulance.
I attended the special meeting last week and was absolutely heartbroken to hear the stories of women and families suffering under this temporary closure. I particularly wanted scrutiny to examine women's choice and informed consent, the continued withdrawal of the home-birth service, changes in planned/emergency Caesarean sections, and other interventions, and what happens when a woman makes an informed decision not to travel to Exeter.
I am particularly concerned about the timing of the enhanced remuneration offer for applicants. NDDH are trying to fill two roles on the consultant rota, with staffing pressures identified back in 2024. However, the heightened pay offer was only unlocked in July 2026, after the temporary closure had already been announced. I asked the Chief Executive of RDUH and a member of the NHS Devon Integrated Care Board about why this offer had been increased so late – I received no answer. I asked the question three times across the meeting and never received a satisfactory response. I am therefore convinced that RDUH have not done everything in their power to avoid this closure.
The committee agreed to establish a Northern Devon Task Force looking more broadly at the sustainability of public services in the area, alongside further scrutiny of the maternity reopening plan. It also agreed to continue pressing Government for intervention.
The central issue for me remains simple: temporary suspension must not be allowed to drift into permanent service loss. When the services are reinstated, we must get to the bottom of how this was allowed to happen in the first place.
Health and Adult Care Scrutiny
Maternity has understandably received a great deal of attention, but the Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee has also had a substantial wider workload.
This month the committee considered the Care Quality Commission's assessment of Devon's adult social care services. Devon received a "Requires Improvement" rating, scoring 62%, just one point below the threshold for "Good". The CQC identified significant strengths, including person-centred working and partnership arrangements, while also highlighting the need for further improvement in waiting times for assessments and reviews, safeguarding backlogs and support for unpaid carers.
Changes to support for unpaid carers are also taking effect from 1st October, with carers' assessments, reviews and the Carers Helpline being brought directly into Devon County Council. The Council says the existing £2.3 million budget for these services will be maintained. Around 35,000 carers are currently supported by Devon County Council, although the true number of people providing unpaid care across the county is believed to be considerably higher.
Scrutiny will need to make sure that organisational changes translate into a better experience for carers rather than simply a different administrative structure.
This is therefore a significant transition. Through Health and Adult Care Scrutiny I will be interested not simply in whether the administrative transfer works, but whether carers themselves find services easier to access and whether the changes reduce isolation and improve support.
Children's Scrutiny and children's services
There has been some encouraging news from Children's Services this month. Ofsted's latest monitoring visit found continued improvement in Devon, including stronger decision-making, more effective early-help services and better coordination between teams. Inspectors highlighted improvements at the "front door" of children's services, child-protection responses and the emergency duty service. There is still more work to do, but it is important to recognise progress where it is being made.
Devon has also confirmed that it will pilot the Government's new SEND “Experts at Hand” approach in Bideford, Exeter Beacon and Newton Abbot. The model will bring speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, educational psychologists and specialist teachers into closer working relationships with mainstream schools, with the intention of identifying and supporting needs earlier rather than requiring families to wait until problems escalate.
The next Children's Scrutiny Committee takes place on 8th October. I will continue pushing for the improvements identified at a strategic level to be felt consistently by individual children and families, particularly those with SEND and those living in rural communities where accessing specialist support can be much harder.
Roads, potholes and the A377
Highways continues to account for a very large proportion of my local casework, and there has finally been tangible progress on two of the long-running problems along the A377.
Work at Weirmarsh (Wolf Meadows) began in September to repair and stabilise the carriageway following the damage to the road back in 2021. Devon County Council expects the overall scheme to take around six months. The initial stabilisation requires a full road closure for up to three months, after which the route should return to two-way temporary traffic lights. The Council is also making use of the closure to resurface around 950 metres of road, improve drainage, clear vegetation and inspect nearby structures.
I appreciate how disruptive this closure is for communities along the Taw Valley, but after five years of temporary arrangements it is good to see a permanent repair finally being delivered.
I have also continued pressing for action at the Taw Valley Garage landslip near Eggesford. I received an important update from highways officers at the end of September. Agreement has now been reached with the landowners' representatives and a Deed of Terms agreed for the installation of rock netting and a catcher fence. Funding and orders for this work have also been approved. Crucially, the work can be undertaken under two-way traffic lights, so it should not conflict with the Weirmarsh closure.
I have also asked whether the deteriorating road surface at this location can be dealt with at the same time. Unfortunately, the Council has confirmed that it cannot recover resurfacing costs from the landowners, and a full resurfacing scheme is not yet designed or funded. However, officers have agreed to raise a scheme for the section and investigate temporary repairs in the meantime. I will keep pressing for the permanent resurfacing work to follow as soon as possible.
More generally, I continue to pursue potholes and highway defects reported by residents and parish councils. Devon manages 13,131 kilometres of carriageway, the largest local authority road network in England, so the scale of the maintenance challenge is enormous. Please continue reporting defects through the County Council system and send them on to me if you are not getting a satisfactory response.
Preparing Devon for more extreme weather
One wider piece of County Council work this month which particularly caught my attention was the WATER 2026 conference at the University of Exeter. I spent the day listening to experts talk about emergency planning and water storage, whilst at every opportunity I had I asked difficult questions of South West Water and the Environment Agency.
Devon County Council brought together councils, farmers, scientists, environmental organisations, and the water industry to consider what has been described as “climate whiplash”: increasingly rapid shifts between drought and periods of intense rainfall. Devon's Resilience Innovation Project is already working with 19 organisations across 38 communities to test measures including natural flood management, better flood warnings and improved community resilience.
This feels increasingly relevant to our communities. This year has illustrated both sides of the problem: prolonged dry weather putting pressure on rivers and water supplies, followed by periods of intense rainfall that our roads, drainage and sewerage infrastructure can struggle to cope with. Long-term resilience means holding more water in the landscape, restoring nature and wetlands, maintaining drainage properly and ensuring our infrastructure is designed for the climate we are actually going to experience.
Supporting Devon’s farmers
September has been a particularly difficult month for Devon’s farming community, with the continuing Bluetongue outbreak adding another layer of uncertainty to already stretched farm businesses. As of 29th September, 2,201 premises across the UK had recorded Bluetongue cases during the 2026/27 season, including 1,825 in England and 872 of those here in Devon. Devon continues to feature among the counties reporting new cases, including cases confirmed as recently as 28th September. I have continued raising concerns about the practical and financial impact on farmers, including animal losses, veterinary and biosecurity costs, disruption to breeding programmes and the considerable emotional strain that an outbreak can place on farming families.
Farmers were dealt another blow on 22nd September when the second application window for the Government’s Sustainable Farming Incentive opened with £233 million available and then closed at 3.48pm the same day, less than six hours later, after sufficient applications had been received to exhaust the budget. Around 12,200 applications were submitted, nearly twice as many as in the first window, and approximately 72% came from businesses with existing environmental agreements due to expire by February 2027.
Farmers in Chulmleigh & Landkey who have farms to run, children to raise, emergencies to tend to, and appointments to attend – missed out on this narrow window. Expecting farmers to be able to suddenly drop everything to spend a day in front of the computer to fill in these forms against a time limit – is unacceptable. This government have shown once again that they don’t understand farming or rural communities.
The level of demand demonstrates how important this support has become to farm businesses trying to produce food while improving soils, hedgerows, habitats, and the resilience of their land. The NFU had warned beforehand that the available funding was unlikely to meet demand and, following the closure, called for urgent answers from DEFRA and a clearer long-term roadmap for environmental farming support. Whatever system Government chooses to use, farmers need sufficient notice and certainty to make long-term business and environmental decisions; access to support should not depend on who can get through an online application process fastest.
Against that backdrop, I was very grateful to spend a day at Martinsfield Farm in Broadclyst on 25th September for the NFU Devon Stakeholder Day. Ed and Heather Rhodes are mixed organic tenant farmers, producing vegetables alongside beef and sheep. The visit gave me an opportunity to see some of these pressures first-hand and to question NFU representatives about farm tenancies, food production, environmental farming schemes, rural crime, and the wider challenges facing Devon agriculture.
Hearing about recent dog attacks across the county was particularly disturbing, with 35 sheep being killed by dogs in North and Central Devon this month. Dog owners must keep their dogs on a lead around livestock and wildlife, even the best-behaved dogs in the world can suddenly change and cause massive damage. My sympathies are with both the farmers and the owners of these dogs that have been destroyed.
There is an obvious common thread running through the Bluetongue outbreak, the problems with SFI and what I hear on farms: farming businesses need stability. Agriculture inevitably involves risks from weather, disease, and the markets, but public policy should be helping farmers manage those risks rather than adding further uncertainty. Devon is a wonderfully rural county and farming is fundamental not only to our economy and food security, but also to the management of our countryside and natural environment. Supporting farmers to do both well must remain a priority.
Rural connectivity and digital inclusion
Earlier this month I was invited to speak at the Rural Services Network’s National Rural Conference, bringing together councils, service providers and rural organisations from across England. I spoke about rural connectivity and digital exclusion, and the reality facing communities like ours in Devon.
Good connectivity is no longer a luxury. It determines whether people can work from home, run a business, access healthcare and public services, complete schoolwork, bank, or just keep in touch with family and friends. Yet the digital divide between urban and rural Britain remains significant.
I highlighted just how stark that divide is in Devon. Devon County Council’s own work estimates that around 10,000 households across the county still do not have reliable broadband. At the same time, North Devon has some of the poorest mobile connectivity in England: only 45.2% 5G coverage compared with more than 96% nationally.
It is striking that communities in Devon have worse levels of good connectivity than Shetland and Orkney. Airband has just gone into administration and has been bought out by another company - Voneus, there is no confirmation yet that existing projects will be completed or that customers will continue to receive internet services.
One of the points I made at the conference was that broadband should now be treated in the same way as roads, electricity, and water: essential infrastructure required to participate fully in modern society. For those approximately 10,000 Devon households still without a reliable connection, the move towards “digital by default” public services risks becoming another form of rural exclusion. At Devon County Council we have warned Government that poor connectivity is affecting access to services, businesses and rural isolation.
National programmes also need to recognise that the last few percent are inevitably the hardest and most expensive premises to connect. Those households cannot simply be written off because the national percentage looks impressive. Rural communities deserve the same opportunity to work, learn, access services and participate in society as people anywhere else in the country.
I was pleased to be able to take the experiences of communities in Devon into that national conversation and make the case that closing the rural digital divide has to remain a priority.
Looking ahead
October will bring another busy programme. Children's Scrutiny meets on 8th October and the next North Devon Highways and Traffic Orders Committee is on 16th October.
I will also continue following the maternity situation closely, pressing South West Water over sewage, leaks and the Wimbleball drought permit, progressing my proposed motion on South West Water, and watching carefully for any clarification from Government about the future of Local Government Reorganisation.
Alongside all of this, the everyday work continues: highways, drainage, school transport, community projects and individual casework across the division. In my day job, the pupils have come back to school this month and I am very much enjoying getting to know my new classes. After a long day at County Hall, teaching young people in my chemistry lessons reminds me why we do what we do: to make Devon a better place for their future.
Thank you, as always, to parish councillors and clerks for raising issues, sharing local knowledge, and helping me get problems to the right people. Please feel free to circulate this report and contact me about matters where County Council involvement may help.
All the best,
Cllr Ed Tyldesley
Devon County Councillor for Chulmleigh and Landkey
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