A SNAPSHOT of West Devon Borough Council’s activities over the past year has revealed that the authority:

Received 507 planning applications

Spent just 13.8 days on average to process a new Housing Benefit claim (well below the national target of 17 days)

Saved £450,000 across West Devon and South Hams by implementing easier to use, customer friendly software

Collected an average of 26.41kg of non-recyclable waste from each household in the Borough

Awarded £3.8m in Council Tax support to those in financial difficulty

Handled 43,406 calls to our call centre

The level of membership of Parklands Leisure Centre’s swim school rose to 109% compared to pre-pandemic levels

Saved around 7,500 staff commuting miles thanks to agile staff working – saving approximately 2.2 tonnes of CO2 emissions

Staff have also processed £33m in covid business support grants over the last two years, providing a vital lifeline across West Devon’s business sectors.

The authority has just released its annual report for the last year, which reflects how the pandemic has shaped council services and how the organisation’s staff have risen to the fresh challenges posed by the impacts of coronavirus.

Of the money that West Devon Borough Council collects from residents in council tax, 11% goes toward paying for services provided by the borough council, including refuse and recycling collection, housing, planning and leisure centres. The rest is split between Devon County Council, town and parish councils and the police and fire and rescue services.

Cllr Neil Jory, Leader of West Devon Borough Council, said: “Yet again, the Council has managed to balance its budget exceptionally well while continuing to provide a level of good service to residents of the Borough.“Time and again, our staff have impressed me with their efforts to support the people and communities of West Devon. There are ongoing challenges presented by COVID-19 and we continue to work with our waste contractors to find ways to meet the high performance standards to which we aspire. We’re responding to new challenges that continue to appear, like making sure we offer adequate support to our Ukrainian guests through the Homes for Ukraine scheme, but I have no doubt that our teams will continue to rise to those challenges.”