Councils to take legal advice after permission refused for judicial review of way unitary is being set up

Two councils in Buckinghamshire have said they will take legal advice after being refused permission to bring a judicial review over the way the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government is effecting the change to a new unitary council for the county.

In a joint statement Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire Councils said: “This is obviously a disappointment and something that we will be taking legal advice on in the first instance. However it remains our sole intention to do everything we can to ensure the new Buckinghamshire Council is something we can all be proud of and will be the very best for all our residents.”

In January the local authorities, along with Wycombe District Council, insisted that their legal action was not intended to frustrate the process of creating a new council. However, they said they specifically had concerns about:

• the lack of local consent
• recent changes to the proposed democratic arrangements, and
• a lack of reasons given for making those changes.

“The result of these changes is that the proposed orders will result in a lack of democratic oversight,” they said.