James McInnes, leader of Devon County Council writes for this title.

I suspect you will have had more than enough of politics over the past couple of months.

So you may be delighted to know that in my first column as leader of Devon County Council I intend to avoid party politics and tell you a little bit about myself, how I came to the role and what I hope to do for you and your community.

 Firstly I would like to thank the editors for offering me a regular space to let you know what's going on at County Hall and how that may affect you - wherever you live in our great county.

 My predecessor, John Hart, served as leader of the council for 15 years and I know he tried to avoid overt party politics in his column. I shall do the same. Ultimately I believe all my county council colleagues - of whatever party - want what's best for Devon and for our residents and businesses. There is more that unites us than divides us and I always try to look for the positives.

I was born and bred in Devon and was a dairy farmer in West Devon until 2001. When I retired from farming, my wife and I lived in Sourton and we recently moved into Okehampton whilst my sister and her family live in North Devon. So I believe I bring knowledge and experience of one of Devon's great industries to my new role as well as a lifetime living in a rural area and now one of our premier market towns.

I was John's deputy for six years and I've been on the county council since 2005. Before that I served on West Devon Borough Council and I was leader there for five years. I am also a long-standing member of the Dartmoor National Park.

During my time at County Hall I've chaired the planning committee and been the Cabinet member for children's services and latterly for adult social care and health. Looking after our most vulnerable children and adults takes up about 80 per cent of our spending but we also provide a lot of other services, including road maintenance and one of my key priorities will making sure our potholes get repaired.

 Despite a tough budget, we've recently agreed an extra £12 million for potholes and road repairs this year and this is a top priority for me.

 Investment in roads nationally and locally has suffered because of  the years of austerity followed by the Covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.

We absolutely need to support people who require care and our most vulnerable children but we also need to look after the basic infrastructure across Devon. For the vast majority of us that's  roads and that's why we've agreed the extra funds and I hope to continue this in future years.

I also intend to champion the largely unsung work that unpaid carers do, especially in a county like Devon with a larger than average number of older people. I firmly believe that without them the social care system would collapse. We have to do more to support them and to improve our social care system overall because, until that's fixed, we're not going to be able to fix the NHS.

 It's also important that we continue our programme of modernisation across the county council. I doubt the new Government will find extra money for councils and so we have a duty to ensure every pound we ask you to contribute in council tax is spent efficiently and effectively.

There are many challenges ahead and I’m very much looking forward to meeting them.