Government again fails to meet deadline over Stratford District Council's Covid legal challenge
The Government has once again failed to meet a deadline from Stratford District Council to respond to its legal challenge over the coronavirus tier system.
Last week Stratford District Council sent a Judicial Review pre-action protocol letter to The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to challenge the decision to place Stratford District in Tier 3 restrictions, a move council leader Tony Jefferson said would be devastating for local businesses.
The council initially demanded a response to the challenge by 5pm on Thursday, only to receive a letter offering assurances that a response would be provided by 4pm today (Monday).
That deadline has also now passed without a substantial response.
A spokesperson from Stratford District Council said: "This afternoon the District Council received an email from the Government’s Legal Department stating that it would not be possible to finalise a substantive response to our letter by their own deadline of 4pm this afternoon, this follows the failure to meet the deadline of 5pm on Thursday last week. It is extremely disappointing that they have as yet not responded to our concerns, we have however been assured that the response will be provided by midday tomorrow.
"Following receipt of their response we will need to fully consider how to proceed in conjunction with our legal advisors, following which we will issue a further statement, we expect that this will be forthcoming in the next couple of days. It is encouraging that the number of cases within the District per 100,000 over 7 days based upon figures published tonight is 45.4 (28 November to 4 December), and further endorses our belief that Stratford-on-Avon District should not be in Tier 3.”