Legal challenge launched to council reorganisation

East Sussex County Council has formally launched a legal challenge to the government's plans to reorganise councils in East Sussex and Brighton & Hove.

Council leader, Reform UK's Andy Woolley, said "a legal letter was issued" on Friday.

The process of local government reorganisation was paused in September by the Communities Secretary Angela Rayner following legal advice.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "We recognise the need to provide certainty so areas have clarity over their future and will set out next steps in due course."

Under plans which had been approved by the government, Peacehaven, Telscombe and East Saltdean, which are currently part of East Sussex, would become part of a new, larger, Brighton & Hove unitary authority.

Woolley told BBC Politics South East the plans "would remove 26,000 people from our footprint of East Sussex, historically".

He previously told BBC Radio Sussex that residents had "consistently raised serious concerns. It's a pattern of sustained and meaningful objection."

Both he and Zoe Nicholson, Green leader of Lewes District Council, said in July that they would consider a legal challenge against the plans, with the latter initiating what she described as "protective legal action" against the reoganisation earlier this month.

Woolley said the pause was a "common sense decision that should have been taken months ago", while Nicholson, who also welcomed the move, stressed residents' interests must be protected "until the plan to annex parts of our district are abandoned".

Jacob Taylor, the Labour deputy leader of Brighton & Hove City Council, said the three areas were "very closely aligned with the Brighton economy" and were "intrinsically connected" to the city in terms of transport, work and education.

"Personally, I think it would be great if those areas became part of Brighton & Hove. It would be much better than being part of a large East Sussex unitary," he said.

Concerns have also been raised about the impact of the continuing uncertainty on council staff.

Dan Sartin, the branch secretary for the union Unison in West Sussex, said local government workers were "under huge amounts of pressure" and "having to do more with less".

He said morale had been low in local government "for a long time" and reorganisation was adding to that uncertainty.

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