Essex Reform UK leader says legal action against reorganisation will be first act in office

In a letter to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Cllr Peter Harris said the proposals for Essex were "ill-thought, expensive, purely ideological in nature and seek to create further democratic distance between the people of Essex and their elected local politicians".

Cllr Harris told Steve Reed that his party would resist the premise of local government reorganisation "robustly".

Commenting on plans to divide the county into five unitary authorities, Cllr Harris said the "direction of travel is the very opposite of the localism agenda that I and my party support".

He added: "This is unacceptable to us and Reform UK, in now running Essex County Council, have a clear mandate to convey these intentions to you.

"Accordingly, as my first formal action as Reform UK group leader at Essex, I yesterday instructed that lawyers prepare a pre-action protocol letter to you which I already have in my possession and, subject to my group’s approval, will be sending to you later this week in order to formalise our objections."

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) confirmed plans to divide Greater Essex into the following five unitary authorities in March. These would be comprised of West Essex Council, North East Essex Council, Mid Essex Council, South West Essex Council, and South East Essex Council.

Reform gained control over the council at the local elections last week after winning 53 of the local authority's 78 seats. The party takes over from the Conservative group, which lost 41 seats at the polls and had been running the council uninterrupted since 1997.

Adam Carey