County backs potential legal challenge to reorganisation in Hertfordshire

The Government announced plans to replace the county’s two-tier authorities with four unitary councils earlier this month.

Members discussed the Government’s decision at a full council meeting last week, before backing the motion.

The motion says that creating four new unitary councils in the county would require the recruitment of four new senior leadership teams - including Monitoring Officers - "at a time when there is already intense national competition for experienced local government leaders".

The motion also claims that these pressures present a significant risk to organisational resilience, continuity of leadership and the successful delivery of the statutory services.

It also complained about the administrative costs of reorganisation and warned that the proposal "risks creating authorities that are less financially resilient than the councils they replace".

Speaking during the meeting, Hertfordshire's Liberal Democrat leader, Steve Jarvis, said: "Nearly two years ago, we were told that the Government wanted to secure devolution, the movement of money and power from Whitehall and Westminster into communities across Hertfordshire and indeed across the rest of England.

"The difficulty is that within a few months of that the emphasis of the Government switched to rearranging local government, a rearrangement that has already consumed an enormous amount of effort and will consume an enormous amount more in the coming years."

He estimated that the plans would cost £100m in Hertfordshire, adding that his preference would have been for the Government to "forget the whole idea".

Adam Carey