Council plans next step in city expansion fight

Leicestershire County Council has said it is to take the next step towards a potential legal challenge to plans to expand Leicester.

The Reform UK-led authority said it was concerned that some 250,000 people currently living in the county face being moved within the boundary of an enlarged Leicester council from 2028.

Council leader Dan Harrison said he planned to send a "pre-action protocol" letter to the government asking for the reasoning and evidence supporting the decision it announced in July.

Harrison, who described the coming expansion of the city as "heartbreaking", said the government's response could determine whether the council pursues a judicial review.

The city expansion is part of the Labour government's plan to reshape the political map of Leicestershire and Rutland by replacing 10 existing councils with two new local authorities.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has been asked for comment.

It previously said the process, known as local government reorganisation (LGR), would improve public services, create larger, more financially sustainable councils, and provide land needed for new homes to accommodate Leicester's growing population.

Speaking to the BBC's East Midlands political editor Peter Saull, Andy Burnham previously said he would consider people's concerns.

"I'm always prepared to look again at issues and coming in, three weeks in, I will take a look at the consultation and the responses, and I know sometimes these changes are not easy," the prime minister said.

He added the structure of local government in Greater Manchester, where he was the regional mayor before becoming prime minister, allowed him to "drive growth and change".

"If we want to give maximum devolved powers to all parts of the East Midlands, I think we do need to see reforms to local government," he said.

"This is not a step we would take lightly," Harrison said.

"But creating a larger city is the single biggest change for Leicestershire in living memory.

"The people of Leicestershire are entitled to transparency about a decision which could reshape their communities and local services for generations."

The government has been accused of ignoring the result of its own consultation on the changes, which showed 87% of some 6,600 responses opposed city expansion.

Harrison added: "We stand firmly with our residents.

"They've spoken loud and clear about the Government's flawed decision and we cannot ignore the strength of feeling across the communities affected.

"Dozens of towns and villages face being swallowed up by a city expansion and we must do everything we can to protect their character and future services."

The Conservative and Liberal Democrat opposition groups at County Hall have also backed the sending of the letter.

The sole Green Party councillor on the county council also opposed the city expansion during a vote on it last month.

Tory group leader Deborah Taylor said: "At last month's council meeting, we made it clear that we were united in defence of our county against a city land grab.

"We stand squarely behind our residents in this fight."

Leader of the council's Liberal Democrat group Michael Mullaney said: "We will continue to fight the government's disgraceful plan to drag hundreds of thousands of county residents into Leicester City.

"We've always said this is a disastrous plan for communities and we support the county council's challenge."

Under the move, once the city boundary is widened, the rest of the county and Rutland will be served by a single unitary council called Leicestershire and Rutland Council. It will mean the existing seven district councils will cease to exist from the point the new structure is in place in April 2028.

Leicester's Labour mayor Sir Peter Soulsby pushed for an expansion to the city boundary which he said was long overdue.

He previously said: "It's the right thing for the city because Leicester, Nottingham, Derby... we lost out in the 1970s when most similar cities saw their boundaries massively extended.

"We were kept within 19th Century boundaries and the change is something that frankly before the announcement privately all of the local parties were very much recognising was the necessity.

"It's going to happen and I think what matters now is that we get on with making it happen in a way that enables the people of Leicester and the surrounding area to have their services preserved."

Soulsby added: "It's also very important to say that what this does is to enable the people around Leicester who are very much a part of the greater Leicester area to have a say in the governance of their city.

"They'll have a vote, they will have a stake in the city of which they are effectively already a part."

The mayor told the BBC he did not anticipate a "massive hike" in council tax for residents brought within the city boundary.

"In fact, it's quite the contrary," he added.

"Because studies that have been jointly undertaken between the city and the county council show that there is the potential saving, the likely saving of over £40m a year for local council taxpayers as a result of these changes."

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