City councils forced into emergency elections after unitaries ruling

The city councils in Exeter and Norwich will have to hold emergency elections after Mr Justice Ouseley this week ruled that his decision to quash the implementation orders for the local authorities’ unitary status meant 13 councillors at each council would also have to have their offices terminated with immediate effect.

The legislation to create the unitaries had extended the councillors’ terms by one year, in anticipation of an all-out election for the new councils in April 2011.

The coalition government is taking a Bill through Parliament to reverse formally the implementation orders and this would have allowed the councillors’ term of office to be extended to next May.

However, Mr Justice Ouseley’s ruling intervened in the process and made no special provision for the 26 councillors. The judge indicated he could not grant the city councils’ request that elections be held on 12 August, advising them to seek specialist electoral advice from the High Court in order for a date to be set.

The leaders of both the Labour and Conservative groups on Exeter City Council are among those affected.

Counsel for the city councils and the government had argued for a solution that would have avoided the need for emergency elections, pending Parliament’s enactment of the Bill.

But counsel for Devon and Norfolk county councils argued that only a full and immediate quashing of the implementation orders was acceptable.

Exeter City Council reacted angrily to the ruling, accusing Devon County Council of “rubbing salt in the wounds of Exeter” after the city council was ordered to pay its, as yet undetermined, costs.

Cllr Adrian Fullam, Exeter City Council’s leader, said: “The process for considering Exeter’s unitary bid has been botched from start to finish. Now people in Exeter face a set of emergency elections. This is an expensive and arguably unnecessary solution to a problem which should not have arisen.

“Was it really necessary for Devon County Council’s legal representatives to pursue this through to the death, especially during these testing financial times?”

Laura McGillivray, chief executive of Norwich City Council, said it was considering the implications of the ruling for the local authority’s executive and the make-up and balance of other committees on which the affected councillors served.

“We will be making every effort to ensure the council runs smoothly in these unusual circumstances,” she added.

Last month Mr Justice Ouseley ruled that the previous Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham, had changed his decision-making approach in an unfair and unlawful manner. The judge said: “On the face of it, the decisions taken by the Secretary of State….simply made a mockery of the consultation process.”