The Liberal Democrats at North Herts Council have ruled out doing any deal with the Conservatives if their vote of no confidence in the Labour leader of the authority is successful on Thursday (November 4). 

Cllr Daniel Allen, who leads a Labour minority administration, is facing the vote after his cabinet chose to support the four-unitary option for reorganising local government in Hertfordshire, rather than the two-unitary model preferred by full council.

At a full council meeting, 24 councillors backed the two-unitary model against 17 for the four-unitary model, but the final decision rested with the Labour cabinet.

It has led to accusations from Liberal Democrat group leader, Cllr Ruth Brown, that the Labour administration "ignored the will" of elected representatives and from Conservative group leader, Cllr Ralph Muncer, that the administration's actions "undermine local democracy".

Cllr Allen pointed out, however, that the four-unitary option had been the most popular option among residents in a consultation held earlier this year and said he is "defending" the "democratic decision" of residents.

In all, 587 North Herts residents responded to the consultation, and 389 of those expressed a preference for a particular option. 151 supported the four-unitary model, 144 backed the two-unitary model, and a further 94 said they preferred a three-unitary model. 

Cabinet members were given legal advice that their decision must not be "pre-determined" – though the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives had suggested to Cllr Allen beforehand that a vote of no confidence could follow if the cabinet backed the four-unitary option.

Several other Hertfordshire councils saw disagreements between the views of the cabinet and the full council on local government reorganisation.

The Liberal Democrat minority administration in Dacorum chose to formally support the full council's preference for four unitaries, despite its own preferred option being for two.

In East Herts, where a Green-Liberal Democrat administration is in place, the cabinet – including all its Lib Dem members – went for the three-unitary model rather than the four-unitary option backed by the full council. 

In Welwyn Hatfield, run by a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition, the cabinet backed the four-unitary option rather than the three-unitary model preferred by full council – though Lib Dem members of the cabinet either abstained or voted against overriding full council's preference.

If Thursday's vote of no confidence – brought by members of the Liberal Democrat group – is successful, Cllr Allen will be removed as North Herts Council leader with immediate effect and replaced on a temporary basis by the council's deputy leader, Cllr Val Bryant. Cllr Allen would not automatically be removed as leader of the Labour group.

A new council leader would then be elected either at Thursday's meeting or at a future full council meeting.

All 11 Hertfordshire councils recently selected their preferred option for the government-led reorganisation of local government in the county. The existing county council and borough, and district councils will be replaced with unitary authorities that take on responsibility for all local government services within a given area.

The two-unitary model would divide Hertfordshire into West and East authorities, and is predicted to give the largest financial savings at between £366m and £418m over the first ten years.

The four-unitary option, meanwhile, would create a new Central Hertfordshire authority containing Stevenage, Welwyn Hatfield and most of North Herts. Some North Herts wards, including Ermine, Weston & Sandon and those in Royston, would instead join a new Eastern Hertfordshire authority.

While it would not be expected to save as much money as the two-unitary model, it is predicted to save up to £124m across the county over the first ten years. 

The Liberal Democrat leader of the county council, Cllr Steve Jarvis, has warned though, that a Central Hertfordshire authority could be "bankrupt" with a predicted £22m deficit in its first year, while Conservative Cllr Muncer said it would be "disruptive, reckless and irresponsible" to back the four-unitary model.

Cllr Allen accused the Lib Dems and Conservatives of "working together" to remove him from office. 

He said he had done "what any responsible leader should do" by supporting the four-unitary model, and added: "The Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives don't agree with your choice, and they don't want a leader who will stand by it. So now they're working together to remove me. Not because I did the wrong thing, but because I defended your democratic decision.

"This is about democracy; about whether or not your voice matters.

"As long as I am leader of North Hertfordshire District Council, I will continue to stand up for the people of North Hertfordshire and protect the choices that you made."

Cllr Allen has previously said that the four-unitary model would be "stable, local, [and] representative".

The council he leads is made up of 23 Labour councillors, 20 Liberal Democrats, seven Conservatives and one independent. 

Cllr Allen told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "We know the maths, and we know attendance [at Thursday's meeting] matters.

"But my job is not to play games – it is to serve the residents of North Herts right up to the vote itself, and afterwards too, regardless of the result."

Cllr Brown, leader of the council's Liberal Democrat group, said the cabinet's decision on local government reorganisation is the sole reason her group have brought the vote of no confidence.

She accused the cabinet of voting for "the break up of North Herts", and added: "They claim to represent residents yet the cabinet members do not represent Baldock, Royston or any of the villages."

She ruled out any kind of coalition or arrangement with the Conservatives should the vote of no confidence be successful. "They may vote with us, and we may vote with them on different things, but there's no arrangement, and that's been a very clear red line in my group," she said. "We haven't budged from that in the 18 months of this administration.

Could we, then, see a return to the Labour-Liberal Democrat joint administration that ended in May last year if the vote of no confidence is won?

Cllr Brown said: "We've done that before, it's not necessarily off the table, but we aren't discussing it with them. There are no discussions going on, and it's not something our group is talking about.

"The expectation would be that Labour would propose a different leader if the vote of no confidence were won."

Speaking on the potential consequences of a successful vote of no confidence, the leader of the Conservative group, Cllr Muncer, said: "The Conservatives will continue to do what is in the best interests of our residents here in North Herts.

"The only coalition we've seen in North Herts is the Labour-Lib Dem coalition, which governed the council until recently. That arrangement left residents paying the price, not least with people now facing a three-weekly bin collection for the foreseeable future."

He continued: "It's the duty of the opposition to hold those in power to account and that's exactly what the Conservatives intend to do.

"Labour's actions undermine local democracy and cannot be allowed to go unchecked.

"Rather than support the communities of North Herts, Labour councillors are advocating for the partition of our district, served by a council facing financial difficulties from day one, which would result in hardworking local people having to pay even more tax for little in return."