Council rules out levelling up judicial review

The council said pursuing the case through the courts would be costly

A council has ruled out pursuing a judicial review into the government’s Levelling Up Fund after spending £1.2m on failed bids.

Durham County Council had previously agreed to consider challenging the funding process, but has since said any legal challenge would be too costly.

It comes after the authority claimed it was not told about a rule change which meant if an area had received funding in round one it would not be eligible in two subsequent rounds.

Leader Amanda Hopgood said: "The legal advice tells us that even if we were to succeed, it wouldn’t reverse the highly disappointing outcome of the government’s process."

'Lobbied for reimbursement'

Cabinet members considered the possibility of seeking a judicial review at a meeting last week, which was restricted from the public.

Ms Hopgood, of the Liberal Democrats, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the estimated cost of pursuing a judicial review would be "£100,000 to £150,000 at the very least".

She said: "Therefore, after weighing everything up, we don’t believe that pursuing a judicial review would be in the council’s or the public interest.

"We have consistently lobbied government ministers for a reimbursement of our bidding costs, but unfortunately this has been refused by government."

County Durham did receive £20m levelling up funding for projects in Bishop Auckland.

The Department for Levelling Up previously said the council, led by an alliance of Conservative, Liberal Democrats and Independents, had also received £39m from other schemes.

County Durham Labour said one of the most galling aspects was that £1.2m of public money was spent without any rewards.

Deputy leader Rob Crute said: "The bottom line here is that £1.2m has been taken from families and residents in County Durham, spent on levelling up bids that failed because government changed the rules at the 11th hour.

"That money must be returned and it is incumbent upon the council to do everything in its power to achieve that."