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Judicial Review of Secretary of State

Release Date: 20 April 2007
On Thursday, 19 April 2007 the application for judicial review of the Secretary of State's decision to progress with the consultation to abolish the Shropshire County Council and the five district/borough Councils in Shropshire and create a Unitary Council was sent to the High Court in London for the action to commence.  The formal papers will either be served later today or on Monday.
 
Attached below, as a matter of record, is the detail of the statement of facts of the case and legal grounds for review which have been produced by Andrew Arden Queens Counsel and Jonathan Manning a barrister.
 
The Grounds of Challenge in summary are:
  1. There is no power for the Secretary of State to undertake the review in the way proposed within the Law.
  2. The proposal for change in any event for Shropshire did not meet the criteria set down by the Secretary of State and no reasonable Secretary of State could have concluded that the criteria were met.
  3. The Secretary of State's conduct on this stage of the process is unfair, partial and unbalanced.
In light of this, Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council, now supported by 11 Councils across England and at least 19 Members of Parliament, have challenged the Secretary of State under Judicial Review and has asked the High Court to stop the process by way of Injunction.

Detail of the statement of facts

detail of statement of facts (Microsoft Word format)

For more information on this subject, please contact:

Robin Hooper, Chief Executive
Tel: 01743 281010

Media contact:

Jon King, Events and Media Officer.
Tel. 01743 281016
Author: andrew-b Date of last revision:  20 April 2007 Date of expiry:  none