ESSEX County Council has said it will decide whether to launch a judicial review against the government to stop reorganisation of local government in the county on Friday reports the Local Democracy Reporter.

The council’s new Reform administration has said the plans to scrap 15 councils – including Essex County Council – in the creation of five unitary councils in Essex are wrong because of the work it says is needed to disaggregate adult and children’s social care into five new authorities.

The government believes reorganising and simplifying councils can drive economic growth, while delivering better public services.

Following the submission of four proposals, the government has decided to go with a five council model. This will see all 15 councils in greater Essex replaced with five, all-purpose, ‘unitary’ authorities under the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).

Essex County Council’s leader Peter Harris met Baroness Taylor, parliamentary under-secretary of state at the ministry of housing, communities and local government to discuss the plans last week.

In a letter issued on June 16 said he will make a decision about issuing a judicial review against the government after a meeting on Friday.

He said: “As I mentioned at our meeting, on Friday this week we will make a decision about issuing this. I hope that you are able to respond by this point. We will resist the premise of local government reorganisation robustly on behalf of the 1.6 million residents of Essex that have sent us to county hall to do exactly that.”

Councillor Harris has said the pace of delivery of local government reorganisation is unrealistic and unsustainable, the costs associated with the transition to new unitary councils are unacceptably high – estimated in Essex to be over £100m and there is concern regarding the impacts of disaggregation of adults and children’s social care and the challenge of establishing several new social care authorities across the county.

He added: “We will utilise all resources at our disposal to challenge and resist local government reorganisation, and we believe that your proposals are ill-thought and expensive, creating further democratic distance between the people of Essex and their elected local politicians. This direction of travel is the very opposite of the localism agenda that I am seeking to secure for the people of Essex.”

The government has been contacted for comment.