Conservative councillors have voted to increase Council Tax and car parking charges while closing public toilets. They refused to debate the option of increasing council tax on second homes when they dismissed budget amendments put forward by the Liberal Democrats at Follaton House on February 22nd.

More money for young people's mental health, children with special needs and Devon's schools is at the core of the alternative budget launched by the county's Liberal Democrats - but all amendments put before Devon County Council were voted down by the Conservatives when they passed their new budget on Thursday.

South Hams Lib Dems are dismayed at shocking new figures that show more than a third of children are now growing up in poverty in some areas of the South Hams.

The new figures, released by the End Child Poverty coalition, show that 39% of children in Totnes Bridgetown are now living in poverty and across the whole Totnes parliamentary constituency the figure is 29.3% of children - or nearly three in ten.

A planning application has bee n submitted for a 68 bed Care Home on the vacant plot of land near to the Rowing Club. The application reference number is 4165/17/FUL and full details are available on the SHDC website.

If you have any comments then they need to be in by 26 January 2018.

The application states that it is to be a 3/4 storey building and will provide employment for 68 full-time employees.

SHDC says that from Wednesday January 10th all three public toilets in Totnes are to be reopened. They will be open from 8.00am to 5.00pm on Monday to Friday.

SHDC also says the toilets will be "open for markets at weekends and special events". As there is a market every Saturday they haven't made it clear if all three toilets will be open or just the one at the Civic Square.

SHDC Executive is refusing to listen to the views of community representatives from Totnes over the issue of the public toilets which have been closed since before Christmas.

Lib Dem Councillor John Birch organised a delegation of local representatives to meet Executive Members and officers of SHDC before their meeting on Monday afternoon, at which they will decide the future of the Totnes toilets.

A merger between South Hams District Council and West Devon Borough Council was scuppered after WDBC suddenly pulled out at the last minute, despite support from the Tory-led South Hams Council.

Even though 37 out of 45 parish and town councils said "No" to the merger, Conservative councillors on SHDC wanted to push through the merger with its cash-strapped counterpart.

Devon, Cornwall and Western Counties Lib Dems have called on Lib Dem MPs to lobby the government to suspend the right to buy legislation for at least five years in order to retain as much social housing as possible.

They've also called on the government to allow local authorities to borrow to invest in social housing - something they are not currently allowed to do.

The Conservative-run South Hams District Council and West Devon Borough Council want to merge.

They are jointly promoting this merger, giving an expected shortfall in income as the principal reason.

However, the proposed merger has disadvantages for the residents of the South Hams.

Here are the key issue we want to draw to your attention: