Wasted time, effort and resources were the common themes as Warwickshire County Council's opposition groups parked political rivalries to criticise a council shake-up being put on hold.

Warwickshire's six county, district and borough councils were set to be abolished by April 2028 to be replaced by two unitary councils – north and south – to deal with services from one level of local government.

The process was happening in all two-tier areas – patches with county councils above districts or boroughs – but the whole programme was suspended this on the back of the government's decisions on the shape of new unitaries being the subject of legal challenges.

Warwickshire's councils had been under pressure to hit tight deadlines to ensure a smooth handover and not all councillors were convinced it could be done.

This week's pause has seen Warwickshire County Council and Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council leader Cllr George Finch call for compensation from government, arguing that day-to-day council services have been affected by staff focusing on the reshuffle and that elected officials "knew this was coming".

Labour group leader Cllr Sarah Feeney defended the need for "sharp, decisive action" so the government could "examine what the legal challenges are and whether the processes are working and right" but scepticism prevails across political divides.

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Sarah Boad "couldn't quite believe it" when she heard the announcement.

"In some ways I am not surprised but think of the millions that have been spent all over the country, potentially for nothing or maybe a different decision," she said.

And while she believes unitary councils are "probably quite sensible" in Warwickshire, she didn't like the way the government forced it on all areas.

"It was always a huge task for them to deliver this stuff in one go," said Cllr Boad.

"It would have been far better to ask people whether they wanted this and to have done it in a more measured, controlled way.

"That's not the Labour way. They like control and you have the old team back again (in the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government), maybe with a different view to what Steve Reed had when he announced this (decision on two unitaries for Warwickshire) back in July."

Conservative group leader Cllr Adrian Warwick drew parallels with last year's decision to allow councils that were due to be axed to scrap elections, only for a legal challenge to see that overruled.

"Last year, we had the Hokey Cokey on whether local elections would be cancelled, eventually they caved in and allowed elections to go ahead," he said.

"Yesterday, having received legal advice, they have U-turned again.

"Whatever your views on local government reorganisation in Warwickshire, it's clear that the continued failings have wasted the time of local government staff and the resources of local taxpayers."

Green group leader Cllr Jonathan Chilvers has argued for some time that as many, perhaps more, efficiencies could be found by the existing councils without merging them and believes the paused reshuffle will hamper those efforts.

"It is shocking that the government keeps marching councils up and down the hill and changing their minds," he said.

"This whole process has been a waste of time and effort when we could be getting on with solving the problems that local government faces.

"We want genuine devolution of power and finances. Local government reorganisation isn't delivering that.

"This is not the way to treat thousands of public servants in Warwickshire who just want to get on with their jobs with a bit of certainty. We need to get on with the day job of improving services, delivering for residents and letting the government interfere with that as little as possible.

"Whatever council we end up with we still have to provide those services. Let's focus on making them as good as possible."

Meanwhile, Cllr Luke Cooper declared that the announcement had been no surprise to his Restore Britain group.

"It seemed like this had been put together without much thought," he said.

"We asked questions from the off and the answers were always 'we don't know' or 'we'll get told about that'.

"This has always had an air of uncertainty and it is the fly-by-the-seam-of-your-pants governance that I would expect from Labour.

"I doubt we will get our money back on all the time spent on the pause if it does end up getting scrapped.

"It is as if nothing has happened or will happen, there is the possibility of a lot of wasted effort. It is poor planning."