A COUNTY councillor has spoken out in a robust defence of spending cuts, but said cuts in central government funding mean there is ‘no good news’.

Conservative Roger Croad, who represents Ivybridge at Devon County Council, spoke of the massive reduction in ­funding between 2009 and 2017.

He said that, out of the council’s reduced budget, a big chunk had to be spent on social services, leaving a shrinking pot for everything else. He said he has no doubt some rural roads will have to return to green lanes as the council will be forced to relinquish responsibility for them.

Speaking at an Ivybridge Council meeting last week, Cllr Croad was responding to an agenda item raised after Newton Abbot Town Council circulated a letter about how to deal with post-cuts grass-cutting.

Ivybridge councillors noted ‘increasing concerns about the impact of cutbacks across the county’. In her report, town clerk Lesley Hughes said Ivybridge Town Council has already had to use its own money for grass-cutting as a result of cuts by both the county and South Hams councils.

She said cuts were creating an impression of ‘semi-dereliction’ and that it is essential that verges are trimmed to maintain the appearance of the town and attract outside investment.

More broadly, she warned that a reduction in services by local authorities would mean town and parish councils would have to ‘pick up the pieces’. If this leads to an increase in council tax, with no corresponding reduction from South Hams and Devon, it will be ‘very difficult to explain to the public’.

Cllr Croad told town councillors that the number of looked-after children for which Devon has responsibility had increased from 480 in 2009 to 708.

‘I’d like to say here and now,’ he asserted, ‘that I’d much rather look after a child than clear weeds out of a gutter.’

He said the county council has to ‘do our bit’ to reduce the amount the Government is ­paying in interest, and in many instances, such as libraries’ travails or the closure of Butterpark Residential Home, a need to reduce costs presents an opportunity to do something better.

He added that, having spent 20 years in local government,

he is ‘convinced that councils shouldn’t run anything’, and that turning Devon’s libraries into mutuals, for example, is the right thing to do.

But Cllr Ray Wilson said a comment made by Cllr Croad that the town council’s portion of the council tax bill had not gone down was ‘a cheap shot’.

He argued that the ‘precept’ had gone up because the town council had to take on services no longer being provided by local authorities.