A Nottinghamshire council has taken its first step towards a legal review of a shake-up of the county’s nine local authorities.
Nottinghamshire was heading towards its largest boundary shake-up in 50 years under Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) plans, with the government deciding in July to merge sections of Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe with Nottingham and create a new unitary containing the rest of the county.
The Labour Government’s LGR plans, initially announced in December 2024, meant the existing two-tier council structure in England – seeing services split between an upper and lower authority – was soon to be abolished, ultimately reducing Nottinghamshire’s nine authorities to just two new unitaries.
The topic of LGR had been shrouded in criticism since it was announced, leading some politicians to claim the process was being rushed and was not taking into account public consultations.
Angela Rayner, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, announced an abrupt “pause” on LGR in England in early September.
This has not stopped Nottinghamshire County Council from moving forward with its attempt for a potential legal challenge on the government’s original July decision.
In late September, the authority’s cabinet voted to delegate authority to the leader, Mick Barton (Ref), to “commence legal proceedings”. The council has now formally lodged a “protective judicial review claim” to the High Court.
A judicial review is the process of challenging the lawfulness of decisions that are made by public bodies. It can only be launched to challenge the way a decision was made, rather than the rights or wrongs of a decision.
The protective claim has been made to “preserve” the council’s legal position and ensure the council meets the need to file for a judicial review within three months of when the grounds of a claim was first made – the government’s July 16 LGR decision.
October documents state on September 24, the authority received a letter from the government confirming the original LGR decision for Nottinghamshire “has not been withdrawn”.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, leader Mick Barton said: “We’re still waiting [for responses from the government]. We’ve written to them four times now about why they came up with the original decision because we believe it’s unlawful.
“That’s what our case is built on, but we’ve lodged our judicial review.”
Before this formal move towards judicial review, Cllr Barton wrote to the government in early September seeking clarification on the government’s LGR decision in what is known as a ‘Pre-Action Protocol’ letter – a procedural step within the judicial review process that aims to get more information about a decision and address any problems before considering further legal proceedings.
Cllr Barton said the authority has still not received a response from the government, with recent documents stating the government finds it “premature” to respond to it.
