Lancashire County Council could launch legal proceedings against the government after being left in the dark about the nature of an unexpected pause in plans for local government reorganisation.
Plans to scrap the county's councils and replace them with four unitary authorities were paused on September 7 to check the legality of the process.
It has now emerged the county council had already been seeking details about the evidence on which the decision to create the four new Lancashire authorities had been based, in order to decide whether to challenge it via a judicial review.
Any of the current councils that want to contest the basis for the government’s decision to go for the four-council option have exactly three months from the date it was announced – on July 16 – to mount a judicial review, meaning an October 16 deadline.
However, a county council cabinet meeting on Thursday heard the Reform UK-run authority had been trying to establish whether that clock was still ticking in the wake of last month’s pause.
Local government secretary Angela Rayner said in the Commons last month that Lancashire’s council overhaul was one of 14 revamps taking place nationwide that would be subject to a “review”.
Meanwhile, she said she would “withdraw” decisions in relation to four others, where some of the councils concerned had already set out a legal challenge.
Council leader Councillor Stephen Atkinson wrote to devolution minister Jim McMahon on September 17 for clarification on the pause, and the cabinet meeting heard that letter has gone unanswered.
The issue was raised again during an already-scheduled face-to-face meeting between the pair five days later, and followed up in further correspondence and requests from County Hall officers during the last week of September.
If the government declares after October 16 it is standing by its July decision, without having gone back to the drawing board to issue it anew, the county council will have missed its opportunity to seek a judicial review, should it then want to do so.
Against that backdrop, the county council’s cabinet voted to permit Cllr Atkinson and the authority’s senior officers to seek an extension – a so-called ‘stay’ – to the three-month time limit for a legal challenge, should it be deemed necessary in the coming days.
A report presented to the meeting stated a successful “protective claim” would “preserve the council’s ability to challenge the July decision if necessary”, beyond the mid-October deadline, without committing it to actually doing so until it has seen the outcome of the government’s review.
Recommending the authority move to keep its legal options open, Cllr Atkinson said it “protects the council’s position [and] affords maximum flexibility and minimal costs”, which a cabinet report estimated would be in the region of £5,000.
He said: “We’ve tried to engage constructively with the government – and we tried to build trust with them.
“I have spoken directly with the Secretary of State and the minister. We’ve always tried to have a respectful conversation, but unfortunately, the legal process is driving us against the statutory time limit.
“We’ve been told we will get a letter back every day now for about the last five days.
“We will continue to act carefully, responsibly and in the best interests of Lancashire’s residents, communities, staff and partners.”
Following a question by Progressive Lancashire group leader Cllr Azhar Ali, Cllr Atkinson stressed that the current legal considerations were not actually concerned with “which model to choose”.
He said: “This is purely about looking at the facts of how the decision was reached.
"We need to make sure it has been made properly, in a proper process, and it reflects all the challenges in Lancashire.
"So there’s no right or wrong answer at this stage."
Cllr Atkinson has long been a critic of replacing the current system with larger all-purpose authorities and the prospect of a Lancashire mayor, while when the shake-up was announced in summer even the Government's own backbench MPs criticised the plans, saying the Pennine Lancashire authority made up of Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn, Rossendale, Pendle and Burnley was set to become the "most deprived local authority in the country" and big questions around how the finances would work were asked.
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