MORE than 150 people and groups have expressed an interest in helping to support local public services in Devon.

It follows consultations by Devon County Council on the futures of a number of public services and ways they should be supported.

The local authority invited communities to respond with ideas as to how some services, including youth services and libraries, could be sustained.

A recent meeting at County Hall, Exeter, drew around 100 members of the public from local communities, with a common interest in helping to support public services.

The council said it has so far received about 160 such 'expressions of interest' from individuals and groups with an interest in supporting services.

That the response level had sent a "clear message, said Barry Parsons, the council's cabinet member with responsibility for community engagement.

There was a growing appetite to support some services that the council found it was financially no longer able to provide itself.

"The meeting, which was well-attended, proves that there's a momentum in local communities to help support local services," said councillor Parsons.

"By 2017, our funding from the Government will have reduced by a third, from £600million to £400million.

"It means that having first made savings in our back office, we're having to make additional savings to services that communities are used to having.

"We can't afford to deliver them in the same way anymore and we've said that the public will have to do some things themselves, and that we will work with them.

The council would talk to individuals and groups who had expressed a willingness to get involved so it could to work up proposals to secure some services, said councillor Parsons.

"People in many communities are ready and prepared to work with us," he said.

"Devon County Council will do everything we can to involve communities in decisions about their local services."