Liberal Democrat councillor Dan Thomas is the new leader of South Hams District Council.

The Newton and Yealmpton representative replaces Julian Brazil, who is expected to be chosen as the new leader of Devon County Council when it meets next Thursday (May 22).

Although the Lib Dems are by far the biggest party in South Hams, representatives from all parties, including Independents, are in positions of responsibility. Both the leaders of the Greens and the Conservatives are on the executive committee and fully involved in the decision-making of the council.

“I like to think that has worked incredibly well and we should take great credit from what we have done,” said Cllr Brazil.

“The tidal wave of Reform UK that swept across the country in the local elections shows that the body politic in this country is not working and I think what we have shown is that you can do it in a different way, in an inclusive manner that’s about consensus and compromise.”

Newcomers to Devon County Council, Reform UK, won 18 seats in the local elections this month. The Lib Dems took 27 but were four short of being in overall control of the council, which was previously Conservative-led.

Cllr Brazil, who is the leader of the Lib Dem group at the county council, says he wants all councillors to have a voice.

“I think that we need to listen to what’s happened, there are a lot of very angry and frustrated people out there who look at politicians and don’t like the way it is done.”

He added that as long as politicians worked for their communities and that was their top priority, they couldn’t go wrong.

Leader of the Conservative group at South Hams and lead member for customer service, Cllr Nicky Hopwood (Woolwell), said the district council is only political when it has to be, and that is “not very often”.

She said the leader had not got everything right, but she admired him for admitting when he got it wrong and said there needed to be more “truthfulness” like this in politics.

The next couple of years were going to be tough for local councils navigating through local government reorganisation and devolution, she said.

Cllr Hopwood said she hoped that if Cllr Brazil did become leader in the county, he would make sure the £6 million collected from doubling the second homes council tax in South Hams was gifted back to the community.

Green Party group leader Jacqi Hodgson (Dartington and Staverton) said Cllr Brazil had shown how a council can operate in a “much more democratic and representative way” and the last two years had been good training for him for what was to come.

Cllr Thomas, who is also a parish and county councillor, member of Dartmoor National Park Authority and the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel,  thanked members for putting their trust in him to take over as leader.

He said: “We are all here for same reason, we are on a journey and we will do the very best for the people of the South Hams for however long as we have left.”