Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

WWDC concedes defeat but will support the new authority.
That ruling by the Court of Appeal was made on 4 March.

Shrewsbury & Atcham and Congleton borough councils made the appeal after their original judicial review against local government re-organisation was not upheld.

WWDC, which will be abolished on 1 April 2009 to make way for a single Wiltshire Council, had supported the two councils’ appeal.

The leader of WWDC, Cllr Graham Payne, said: “Cabinet has now decided that we have exhausted all reasonable legal opposition to the unitary proposal which has now been approved by Act of Parliament. We are sorry to lose our District Council status but we’ve listened to local people who want to retain a local district council in West Wiltshire and we’ve fought as hard as we could to achieve that.

We will now put all our efforts into ensuring the new Wiltshire Council meets the needs of all our residents and will continue to work closely with the county council and the three other district councils in achieving this aim."