Stratford council drops legal challenge over Government’s Tier 3 decision

Stratford-on-Avon District Council has backed away from a threat to take the Government to court over the decision to place it under Tier 3 controls after the second national lockdown ended.

The Conservative leader of the council Tony Jefferson had described the move as “arbitrary and irrational”, with the local authority issuing a formal Judicial Review pre-action protocol (PAP) letter to the Health Secretary.

The council had initially written to Matt Hancock urging him to “retract” the decision to put the district in Tier 3 along with the rest of Warwickshire, and instead place it into Tier 1 or 2.

But Mr Jefferson said on Wednesday that it would not be pursuing further legal action “at this stage”, after receiving a response “after much delay” from Government lawyers.

In sending the letter, setting out what must be done to avoid a matter going to court, the council had questioned the Government’s calculations for putting it in the highest tier.

Following national tiering announcements on November 26, Stratford was included in a sub-regional group which included neighbouring districts with much higher seven-day infection case rates, including Coventry – which still has 488 cases per 100,000 – and Solihull with 319.

It has previously been reported that Stratford had the lowest rate of any area in the country being placed into Tier 3, now standing at 63, in the seven days to Thursday.

Meanwhile, bordering districts in the neighbouring county of Worcestershire, which was placed into the lower Tier 2, also had higher rates.

Speaking at the time, Mr Jefferson said: “Locally, Tier 3 is just not seen as credible.”

But the council said the Government had responded stating it “stands by the original decision” to include “Stratford-on-Avon District in a wider cluster with Coventry and Solihull and the whole of Warwickshire”.

In the reply, the justification for Tier 3 was based on the imminent threat to public health, while imposing a lower tier would have “resulted in a patchwork quilt which was confusing for the public and led to a lack of compliance”.

Stratford said the Government had also shared new information “of which we were not aware” before it sent its legal letter; that Warwickshire County Council had asked both for tiers to be imposed at the county level, and for “clustering with Coventry and Solihull”.

Mr Jefferson said the Health Secretary had since written separately to Warwickshire County Council’s Conservative leader, Izzi Seccombe, assuring her “we will again assess each area individually, including Warwickshire, on its own merits” during a national review of tiers on December 16.

He added that Government representatives were set to meet with the county’s local authority leaders next week, ahead of the review.

Mr Jefferson said: “Whilst we have not achieved the immediate result that we had hoped for, it was absolutely appropriate, with the information we had available at the time, that the district council raised the formal challenge with government.

“We are also conscious that any formal legal action challenging this decision would now not be heard before the review of tiers scheduled for December 16.

“At this stage, therefore, we are not pursuing further legal action.”