It was a compelling moment for me, as I attended a South West Councils meeting at Taunton Cricket Club last week, when colleagues came up in a state of excitement, even schadenfreude, to show me that I'd made the back page of The MJ.
There I was merrily depicted as not one but two Arnotts, supposedly the sole guru of the Devon districts' draft ‘4:5:1' proposal for Devon (eight other district leaders and chief executives were involved in that) earlier in the year, and now seemingly an evangelical convert to a single unitary for Devon as a new county councillor.
‘Well at least it wasn't Rotten Boroughs,' those gathered assured me as they chowed down on more sandwiches. I made some small attempt to explain that the story was not quite tickety-boo but knew they were more interested in the fudge brownies.
So, for the record, and bear with me, the 4:5:1 was originated at the beginning of the year, hurriedly it is fair to say due to the ludicrous deadlines around LGR. We'll all recall the December letter, the March reply, and the constantly shifting advice in dozens of webinars. And in Devon, the unacceptable context that the then Conservative-run Devon CC put in for a Devon & Torbay unitary as a pretext to cancel the May 2025 election.
This cynical attempt was denied them by the government - and duly more than 40 Conservatives were reduced in May to just seven.
In the end, we are all reminded, this will be a decision for the secretary of state (SoS). But two missteps should be noted. It is obvious now that for a county like Devon the SoS should have appointed an independent commissioner to work with all the councils rather than encouraging the current divisive process.
The 4:5:1 was a decent interim alternative. Is it perhaps less compelling now that the City of Exeter do not wish to be in the five as their first choice and Torbay of the four understandably wish to retain their unitary status?
However, and more seriously, as the County Councils' Network (CCN) report co-authored with Newton stated on 10 October, the risks to social services across the board if new unitaries of under 500,000 are created are real and present. This existential threat to the critical adult and children services of Devon predicted by the CCN cannot be ignored as authorities prepare submissions for the end of November.
Since being elected to county I have taken no part in discussions re LGR in my own district, which the genial back page did not mention. Personally, my role at county has been to work on the development of Neighbourhood Area Committees which in my view must be implemented under whatever the outcome decided for Devon by the secretary of state is. Indeed this the one potential gain from this troubling process.
In the end, we are all reminded, this will be a decision for the secretary of state (SoS). But two missteps should be noted. It is obvious now that for a county like Devon the SoS should have appointed an independent commissioner to work with all the councils rather than encouraging the current divisive process.
And why on earth are we doing it at all? With Cornwall wanting no part of a joint Mayoral Strategic Authority with Devon, all Devon councils were united in asking for a Devon mayoralty to get on with that key strategic piece. We have written formally but received only a ‘noted' reply.
Meanwhile other potential mayoral authorities to our east, many years ahead of us as existing unitaries, don't expect to achieve that status this parliament. Which does not give much expectation for Devon.
So if we are not going to achieve Mayoral before 2029, why are we being required to smash up a two-tier district/county system which has served well for half a century?
Yes, we'll make the best possible case for Devon, whether from the district or the county perspective. We will all answer the exam questions.
But as to why we are being required to do so in Devon, I am not at all sure.
Cllr Paul Arnott is cabinet member for local government reorganisation at Devon CC
