Cumbria County Council warns Secretary of State of potential legal challenge over local government reorganisation

Cumbria County Council has issued a pre-action protocol letter to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick, warning of a potential legal challenge over his favoured proposal for local government reorganisation in the county.

In July this year the Secretary of State announced that he had chosen a proposal for two unitary councils for Cumbria - an East unitary council covering the existing areas of Barrow, Eden and South Lakeland and a West unitary council covering the existing areas of Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland.

The minister said he had considered that the proposal for a single unitary council for the whole of Cumbria – which was the favoured option of the county council – also met all three of the criteria.

“However, having regard to the size and geography of Cumbria, including the geographic barriers of lakes and mountains, and the rurality of its population, I have decided that it would be more appropriate to implement the East West unitary proposal, allowing for more localised decision making, which could be important given the geography of Cumbria,” he said.

A proposal for two unitary councils – one council comprising the existing areas of Barrow, South Lakeland and Lancaster City and the other council comprising the existing areas of Allerdale, Carlisle, Copeland and Eden – did not meet the improving local government and service delivery and credible geography criteria, Jenrick said.

The Secretary of State also decided not to implement the proposal for two unitary councils – one council comprising the existing areas of Allerdale, Carlisle and Eden and the other council comprising the existing areas of Barrow, Copeland and South Lakeland – as he considered that this proposal did not meet the credible geography criterion.

A spokesperson for Cumbria County Council said: “After careful consideration Cumbria County Council has taken the decision to issue a pre-action protocol letter to the Secretary of State following its decision to create two new unitary councils for Cumbria.

“The pre-action protocol letter is the first step towards ‘potentially’ pursuing a Judicial Review (JR). Government will now consider the information in our letter and respond. We will then review their formal response before deciding on our next steps.”