In April 1974, the Urban District Council underwent local government reorganization and ceased to exist.

Its functions were taken over by the new East Devon District Council, with headquarters at Sidmouth. The UDC continued to operate in this capacity until April 1974 and also met as the new Ottery St Mary Parish Council from July 6th, 1973. Elections for the new council were not scheduled until 1976.

In October 1973, the Parish Council decided to exercise the option offered to urban councils, which was discontinued under reorganization, and called itself a Town Council. It also pressed for every planning application affecting the area to be submitted to the Town Council for its comments, a policy accepted by EDDC. In December, the Town Council sought powers to retain control of the town's Cemetery and Allotments at Winters Lane. However, property owned by the UDC would be transferred to the EDDC.

Chairman Cllr G. Hansford, who was elected in 1973 and served on OSMTC since 1974, believed that keeping more powers within the new Town Council would lead to issues. He anticipated that the limited responsibilities of the new Council could be handled by a part-time Clerk, with the funding coming from a penny rate. The post was advertised in February 1974 at a salary of £260 per year. Mr. F. Burns was appointed to this post with an addition sum of £50 per annum for secretarial duties

During 1973 and early 1974, the main issue in Ottery was a controversial proposal by DCC for the town's future development. This proposal faced strong opposition from the town's residents and UDC. The plans were displayed at the Institute in August, followed by a public meeting in September. A detailed account of the proposals was published as a supplement in the Ottery News. The public meeting led to the formation of the Ottery Planning Action Group due to the expressed strong opposition.

In February 1974, the Ottery News reported that the DCC had made significant changes to the original plan. The UDC approved the revised plan, which involved turning Kennaway and Ridgeway into a ring road, closing Yonder Street to through traffic, shutting down Longdog Lane, and disconnecting Hind Street from Broad Street.

The proposal to accommodate 700 people and build a new primary school in Gerway had been revised to include 200 houses. Furthermore, there was support for the expansion of the Hind Street car park, the creation of a river walk by the tumbling weir, and the implementation of a partial one-way system for Mill Street and Hind Street. Additionally, it was proposed that any future large-scale development should be focused in the Island Farm and King's School area.

Although this was the main issue concerning the town and its UDC in 1973 and early 1974, several other concerns were raised,

such as the maintenance of the Mill Stream and Head Weir, which were acquired in 1973 and are currently the responsibility of EDDC; the Youth provision, considered "very healthy" in 1973 with around 180 members; proposals to address traffic problems first made in May 1976; a restriction on town population growth to 5,300; a flood prevention scheme in central Ottery; rates; free parking in Hind Street Car Park; conserving roadside plants by limiting the width of verges; attempts to brighten the town at Xmas; converting the Priory to accommodate the proposed Parish Council and a museum cancelled in august 1973, and other details that I might have forgotten but that have been brought up in the Town Council's discussions ever since.

I hope you have enjoyed my latest editorials as much as I did researching them. They were based on newspaper snippets between 1942 and 1974, so there are limitations due to the available information and the reporting accuracy. My intention has been to remind our readers of the origin of matters that are still questioned by the public in social media and that create confusion.