How far do prerogative powers extend? Nicholas Dobson reports
In an outburst of good cheer, Samuel Johnson apparently once remarked that “when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully”. Literally speaking at least, there was no work for the hangman in the government’s announcement on 25 July 2007 that it would implement the nine proposals for unitary local government then specified, once the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill becomes law. However, some authorities did feel they had been hung out to dry in the whole process. And that feeling of twisting in the wind led to the legal challenges which came before Mr Justice Underhill in the Administrative Court on 10 October 2007 in Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council and Congleton Borough Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2007] EWHC 2279 (Admin), [2007] All ER (D) 124 (Oct).
In addition to the substantive claimant authorities (Shrewsbury and Atcham and Congleton) a number of other authorities were interested parties as potentially affected by the unitary proposals. The claimants—both of which were liable
