South Hams District Council is looking to build on its recent successes as it continues to commit to its Council Plan.
The plan, which lays out the authority’s priorities and provides the organisation with an overall direction, looks to build on the great work already being done by the authority in both its core services and outside of its statutory responsibilities, in areas like climate and biodiversity, housing, community wellbeing, leisure and the economy.
Cllr Dan Thomas, Leader of South Hams District Council, said: “The council has done so much over the last 12 months that we all should be proud of. In 2025-26, we’ve set excellent standards by starting the planting of a new woodland in South Brent, launched a marine electric charging project in Salcombe, upgraded homes across the district to make them warmer for winter and supported a landmark development in Dartington to deliver 39 social-rented homes.
“We’ve secured an 18-acre site at Sherford for business development, awarded thousands of pounds to market traders to make them more sustainable, commenced a programme of refurbishment and refreshing of some of our public assets like toilets, and seen almost £6m invested in sports and recreation facilities through developer contributions and match funding.
“But this is just a taste of what we are delivering for our communities across the South Hams and shows our ambition to go even further. We have aims within our key services, like doing everything we can to tackle the district’s housing crisis and increasing our household recycling rates. We will continue to deliver responsive and high-quality frontline services for everyone living here.
“Our vision is wider than our core services though; we want to make a genuine difference to the environment, working with partners on projects while also bringing down our own emissions. We want to support our economy to innovate and thrive. We want to continue to support local leisure and community facilities, support our high streets and all our communities.
“This is all being achieved against the background of the council losing a significant amount of funding between now and 2028/29 due to the Government’s ‘Fair Funding’ Review and the gap in spending between rural and urban councils growing sharply.
“The plan is built on the needs of our residents and our communities. Their needs always drive the work we do and always will. Our responsibility is to them – and this Council Plan is our promise to turn ambition into action, and action into lasting results for the people of the South Hams.”
To find out more about the Council Plan, visit the council website.
