A GOVERNMENT decision to re-draw the local government map of Devon — by allowing Exeter to become a stand-alone council — is bogged down in political and legal squabbling just days after it was revealed.

The decision to give Exeter City Council unitary status, announced last week, will mean Devon County Council will no longer exist in its present form.

The district councils, including North Devon and Torridge, will remain.

But the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) decision was immediately thrown into doubt after it was revealed a senior civil servant had advised against the plan.

Peter Housden, the DCLG permanent secretary, wrote to communities secretary John Denham: "Your proposed approach of implementing a unitary Exeter and Norwich would be a departure from the criteria. My clear legal advice is that the risk of decisions for a unitary Exeter and Norwich being successfully challenged in judicial review proceedings is very high."

Tory-led Devon County Council has promptly launched a judicial review. And the Conservatives said they would tear up the plan if they won the general election.

The Government said it had listened to local people and the change was designed to improve local government in Devon, but MPs and councillors in the county could barely conceal their fury.

Devon County Council leader John Hart said: "We have clear legal advice there is a substantial case to be made against the Government for the cavalier way they took this decision.

"If this unwanted reorganisation is forced through, the cost to council taxpayers of both Exeter and Devon will be multiplied many times over.

"This Government is trying to ride roughshod over the people of Devon and Exeter, ignoring its own rules and engaging in shoddy practices for political gain."

Opposition politicians have claimed the decision was made to help the electoral fortunes of the city's Labour MP, Ben Bradshaw, a claim he and his government dismissed as political spin.

Torridge and West Devon MP Geoffrey Cox said: "This is clearly a political fix and this government simply doesn't care about rural communities and interests.

"This whole, painfully-drawn-out process has been an unmitigated disaster, undermining morale, draining resources, preventing councils from moving forward with practical measures to improve services and making planning for the future impossible."

North Devon MP Nick Harvey said: "An Exeter unitary council is the worst possible outcome to this fiasco."

Torridge District Council leader James Morrish said: "The only conclusion I can draw is that the government itself — and in particular I hold the minister John Denham completely responsible — is trying to give what I see as a helping hand in getting Labour's blue-eyed boy, Ben Bradshaw, re-elected in the general election at the expense of every tax payer outside of Exeter city."

And North Devon Council leader Des Brailey said: "It's time to move forward now and put this nonsense behind us."