Shadow leader of incoming West Surrey Council asks for legal advice behind local government reorganisation decisions

However, Lib Dem councillor Paul Follows acknowledged that “there is no serious legal basis” to challenge those decisions.

Earlier this month Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner announced that dcisions on reorganisation in Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk - and where relevant, their neighbouring unitary authorities - would be withdrawn in light of the new legal advice, while those for 14 other areas were being paused and reviewed.

However, she also said reorganisation in Surrey would not be affected by the review. 

Writing on Facebook, Cllr Follows said: “LGR in Surrey is NOT cancelled or paused and West and East Surrey will continue to be created on 1st April 2027 (all Surrey boroughs/districts and Surrey County Council will be dissolved).

“Unlike anywhere else, and at the specific request of Surrey County Council, we ended up on the ‘Fast Track’ version of the process and that means that legislation has already been passed by Parliament enacting this in Surrey.”

He also noted that elections had already taken place.

“What that means is there is no legal route for anyone to change or challenge the process in Surrey,” Cllr Follows said.

He added: “Unlike other areas that have challenged this earlier in the process, Surrey County Council has always been in favour of the changes and so there was never any unified legal position in Surrey to meaningfully oppose this in court (despite opposition of almost all the boroughs).”

In relation to whether he would now seek legal action, Cllr Follows said he would not, adding: “I will simply not waste public money on an absolutely hopeless legal cause and will not take staff away from the crucial job of getting everything sorted for 1st April - an absolutely mammoth task in the short time we have.

“As per my post last week, I have requested the legal advice that informed their recent decisions to understand and fix any issues that they believe exist.”

In a Q&A document recently published by the Local Government Association, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government insisted that it would not publish or comment on the legal advice it received. However, it maintained that the legal powers to do local government reorganisation “remain valid”.