The cost to councils in north Cumbria of a contentious legal battle with the Government have been revealed.
Cumbria is currently undergoing a once in a generation shake-up of its local government structure.
The reorganisation, triggered by the Government, will see Cumbria’s existing seven councils abolished by 2023 and replaced by two new unitary councils for the entire county.
Cumbria County Council launched a call for a judicial review into the process last year. The authority’s Labour leadership believe that the decision to split Cumbria into two large constituencies was done so unlawfully.
Conservative leaders of Carlisle, Allerdale and Copeland opposed the legal action believing it to be a waste of taxpayers’ money.
The costs to north Cumbria’s authorities has been revealed via a Freedom of Information request in which a member of the public asked Cumbria County Council for the costs incurred. The county said that total external costs were £33,997, and internal costs were £18,927.88.
High Court Judge Stephen Davies refused the application for a judicial review in January, ordering the council to pay the Secretary of State’s legal fees and that of the borough councils.
Costs awarded against the county amounted to £30,223.41. In total the process cost Cumbria County Council £83,148.29.
Councillor Stewart Young, leader of the county council, said: “The decision taken to divide Cumbria into two unitary authorities will disrupt public services for decades to come; and we know from other local authority areas that have been split, that there will be a devastating impact on those services.
“For this reason alone, I believe it was incumbent on us to challenge the Secretary of State.
“And although we were unsuccessful in being granted a full formal hearing, at the oral permission hearing Justice Fordham, the UK’s leading authority on judicial review, took one hour and 45 minutes to deliver his judgement.
“He summarised our case very clearly, stating that the question for him was whether we met the very high threshold for JR, and it was on this element that we failed.
“Ultimately it’s the people of Cumbria who will pay the price for the actions of this government.
“In reference to the FOI disclosure, our estimated costs were in the region of £120,000. The actual incurred costs were significantly lower, coming in at under £65,000.
“I note that internal legal costs have also been referenced – as internal staffing costs these are budgeted for elsewhere, and that is simply a case of our staff doing what they are paid to do.”
The three north Cumbrian borough councils had to split a £12,000 bill for legal advice between them.
Carlisle City Council’s costs including internal costs and their share of the £12,000 bill was £4,650. The legal proceedings cost Allerdale council £4,466. Copeland Council spent £500 on officer costs but did not reveal how much of the £12,000 bill it covered.
Leader of Allerdale council Mike Johnson said: “Within the council we have an allocation to deal with legal costs but it’s legal costs we ended up being forced into. Through no choice of our own we ended up having to defend ourselves.”
The Conservative leader said that the judicial review had absolutely no chance of being successful.
He added: “If the cabinet was so cohesive and gelled and felt they were duty bound to do it why did five members of the cabinet abstain?”
The Liberal Democrats in the cabinet abstained on the vote to launch legal proceedings – they were not in support but did not want to break up their alliance with Labour.
