Shrewsbury and Atcham BC's legal challenge to halt the Government's unitary plans is gathering pace, with the backing of a second district, Salisbury DC. The legal bid, reported in The MJ last week (see page 1, The MJ, 19 April), could potentially lead to the collapse of all unitary bids across the country. Acting chief executive of Salisbury, David Crook, has offered his support to the last-ditch attempt to halt the process. He said: ‘The way the consultation process is being conducted by the Government is intellectually incoherent.' But in other quarters, the unitary process has been given a boost, with the MP for Burnley calling on the Government to impose single-tier councils across Lancashire. Speaking during a Westminster Hall debate, the Labour MP for Burnley, Kitty Ussher, said: ‘It is my strong belief that the issues faced by my constituents require an end to two-tier and a return to unitary government.' Local government minister, Angela Smith, said unitary authorities would rule out a return to regional assemblies. Speaking to a meeting of the Fabian Society, Ms Smith said: ‘We're not pushing regional assemblies because they were rejected in the referendums. What we have offered in the legislation is for councils to use the unitary route.' But, in a statement which throws a question mark over the future of small unitary councils, she warned that many districts were ‘too small' to have the ‘strategic view' needed to move forward. She also acknowledged problems with centralism, and said: ‘What central government does is set standards. Councils do the extras. What is absolute madness is that ministers in London will tell a council which wants to have a parish whether they can have it or not.'
