Senior Suffolk CC members will decide on Monday whether to continue with formal legal action against the Government's reorganisation plans.
The decision comes after correspondence revealed communities secretary Steve Reed rejected his own civil servants' advice.
Whitehall officials had advised that a single unitary authority was the 'strongest proposal for Suffolk' while the three unitary option – ministers' favoured reorganisation plan for the county – was ‘complicated by a significant boundary change request modification'.
The council will consider whether Reed's decision exceeded his legal powers, failed to follow statutory process and departed from the Government's own published criteria without clear justification.
Council leader Michael Hadwen said Reed appeared to be forcing Suffolk into a ‘chaotic reorganisation' with a ‘blatant disregard' for the advice of his civil servants.
A statement from the council said its legal challenge was not about seeking to deliver one unitary council, but about calling a halt to the process entirely and ensuring Government decisions affecting residents were fully transparent.
In a statement, a Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) spokesperson said: ‘Decisions on local government reorganisation are taken transparently and in line with the published criteria.'
A judicial review has already been submitted by Norfolk CC in response to the Government's reorganisation proposals for three unitaries.
