Norfolk unitary advice overturned

Two units in Norfolk - or one?

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The Boundary Committee for England overturned its own officers' advice when it opted for a single Norfolk unitary council.

Papers disclosed to Breckland DC following a Freedom of Information Act request show that officers recommended a two-unitary east/west split to the 21 May meeting of the committee, which conducts unitary government reviews.

Officers dismissed the single-county unitary option as presenting "challenges to effective strategic leadership and neighbourhood empowerment" because of its 800,000 population and large area. They said the east/west model would be "more likely to contribute to effective strategic leadership across the east of the county than under [a] unitary county".

Unitary reviews have been carried out for Devon, Norfolk and Suffolk, with a two-council model chosen for Suffolk and county-wide unitaries for the other two (LGC, 10 July).

Breckland has seized on the rejection of officers' advice as ammunition for the judicial review it is taking on behalf of four Norfolk districts.

Deputy chief executive Tim Leader said the committee might now be challenged on grounds of rationality, in addition to process errors the districts claim it made.

"Counsel's advice is that we have a strong case for judicial review," he added.

The report was by Tim Atkinson, who a committee spokesman described as "a junior official involved in the Norfolk review". He said Mr Atkinson, who has since left, "was not manager, but I assume the paper would have been seen and agreed by his manager".

The committee chose the single unitary "after they had an extremely long discussion and used their judgment," he said.

Its proposal for a single unitary Devon also faces judicial review. East Devon DC is contesting the legality of the Devon review and the committee's refusal to consider whether the two-tier system should be kept.