It's been a real pleasure to travel all around the constituency this month on my summer surgery tour, visiting over 50 communities and chatting to more than 260 constituents. It’s a huge patch, and we drove a lot of lanes... but I feel very lucky to spend my summer visiting all the corners of beautiful South Devon.

When we finish the surgery tour, my team and I take time to reflect on what we've heard, to discern any red threads running through the all the conversations I have had with constituents. Last year it wasn't quite so clear, but this summer there is no doubt.

Because no matter where I visited, local government reorganisation came up. From East Prawle to Brixham to Holne, people ventured out to voice their anger about the government’s politically motivated carve-up of Devon’s local authorities.

Nowhere was this anger more palpable than in Berry Pomeroy. Under the government’s plans, Berry Pomeroy Parish, which includes the upper portion of Bridgetown, will be absorbed into the expanded Torbay Council, meaning it's cut away from the Totnes community it has belonged to for generations.

In between my surgery dates, I attended a meeting, along with Cllr David Thomas, leader of Torbay Council, at Berry Pomeroy Parish Village Hall. No one left that meeting believing Berry Pomeroy Parish wished to be part of an expanded Torbay Council.

The community’s preference was glaring and rooted not in considering one council as better than another but in where they thought of as their home, their identity, their community.

Cllr Thomas heard the strength of feeling and then completely ignored it.

Last week I found out the Conservative-run Torbay Council had jumped into bed with Labour and agreed with their plan to carve up Devon. This not only disregards the wishes of Berry Pomeroy but Bridgetown, Kingswear, Marldon and Totnes, which will now be divided.

These communities have been ignored by national government and now by local government, too. And they are not the only ones. As I travelled across South Devon this month, people vented about the government’s plan to divide up Devon.

In Strete, people were worried about funding the massive Devon Coast and Countryside Council. In Townstal, the unease centred on services. In Thurlestone we discussed the disruption to children's services, and elsewhere the concern was over the pressure on council tax.

All these concerns are wrapped up in a clear message: the people of South Devon reject the government’s proposal for local government reorganisation. They know it will divide communities, make service delivery harder and could hike council tax.

The scary thing is the government knows this, too. They saw the consultation, in which 69% of those who responded had a negative view of this plan. Yet, they are pressing ahead because of their focus on the urban growth of Exeter, Torbay and Plymouth. This makes a mockery of what Andy Burnham says devolution is.

Thank you to everyone who has signed my petition. I will be taking your concerns to parliament and do everything I can to make the government listen. Local government reorganisation should be from the ground up, informed by communities, rather than the top-down Whitehall diktat we have got here.