Councillors and Clerks from all three tiers of local government came together for the first ever Salcombe Division Parish Assembly.

It felt like a Conference of the Parties - like-minded people committed to public service - no politics- people first.

They agreed on the importance of pooling resources and experience to proactively develop the ability of Neighbourhood Area Committees to protect local democracy.

An NAC is a new body that will sit between the Unitary Authority and parish/town councils.

They will represent local needs and how services are funded locally.

Seeking advice from the most successful NACs elsewhere on where to focus their lobbying power to ensure the NAC is designed to meet their needs.

Modbury Parish Council offered to host the next Salcombe Division Parish Assembly in January.

District Councillors, Cllr Mark Long and Cllr Lee Bonham will seek to organise a wider meeting of Mayors, Chairs and Clerks from all parishes and towns in South Hams to emulate the meeting.

They want to ensure the voices of small rural and coastal communities are heard when the Unitary Authority is imposed on us from above and SHDC and DCC are abolished.

When the dust of LGR settles - there will always be parish and town councils which are the foundation of local government and closest to our communities.

Paul Arnott, DCC cabinet member for Local Government Reorganisation, spoke openly about his concerns that smaller parishes risk being marginalised without an effective NAC.

He applauded the endeavours of those present to better understand how parishes could be best represented on the NAC to protect local democracy.

There is still time to lobby to co-design how NAC will work and how they will be represented.

He thinks this type of meeting should be happening across Devon to champion local democracy through well-designed NAC.