The Conservative / Reform led Hampshire County Council have committed to spending £500,000 of public money on a Judicial Review of the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) decision, despite knowing that success won’t necessarily change anything and almost certainly won’t stop the proposed merger involving Eastleigh, Southampton and parts of the New Forest and Test Valley.

We should not be surprised that HCC won’t publish the legal advice it has. The Conservatives on New Forest District Council did so, but then it was politically helpful to them to justify not taking legal action.

The Lib Dem opposition at HCC have ramped up political pressure, questioning why the authority won’t publish the legal advice they have for a similar challenge . Of Course, Reform won’t do likewise because they are already in hoc to the administration, running committees as Chairs and Vice Chairs.

As a taxpayer myself, I would have really liked to have seen the legal advice in order to determine whether the legal experts really think there is any chance of at least forcing government to run the exercise again. At best a JR would cause a delay but wouldn’t stop the process.

We have to trust the the Conservatives who sit on the Cabinet, who are keeping all their cards close to their collective chests, have made the decision in the best interests of our communities, being equally mindful of their duty not to throw such large sums of money away on lost causes.

Some will say “Good”…. this is such a disgraceful imposition that any amount of public money is worth spending in order to put up a challenge. The amount of trust you have in our political leaders will usually vary in line with your political views.

Commitments were made about pursuing a Judicial Review prior to the Council elections, even before legal advice was received. One has to hope that the blue team aren’t simply posturing and pursuing a hopeless cause which they know to be hopeless, simply because they painted themselves into this corner for electoral reasons.

I am frustrated, not least because I have opposed the Government plans at every stage from the outset. My colleagues and I knew that centrally imposed arrangements by a Labour government, forcing communities together in ways that don’t suit or respect them isn’t the way devolution should work.

The Conservatives not only embraced the plans, extolling the virtues of all the new money and decision making powers that were promised with it. They even decided to Fast-track the process !

Act in haste, repent at leisure…… trusting the very politicians that have messed everything up so badly from the outset is a rather big ask.