The leader of a North Staffordshire council facing abolition under local government reorganisation is calling for an 'urgent' meeting with new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Jonathan Gullis, Reform UK leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, has written to Mr Burnham to request the meeting to discuss the authority's continuing objections to LGR.

All councils in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, including the borough council, are set to be absolished and replaced with two new unitary authorities by 2028.

A North Staffordshire unitary will cover Newcastle, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Moorlands, with another covering the south of the county.

In his letter, Cllr Gullis raises a number of concerns, including the fear that Newcastle taxpayers will have to take on some of Stoke-on-Trent City Council's 'debt burden'.

Latest figures show that the city council has £783 million of outstanding debt, most of it owed to the Public Works Loan Board.

Staffordshire County Council has £340 million of debt, while the Newcastle and Staffordshire Moorlands councils have £8 million and £12.1 million respectively.

The government has previously said there is no proposal for council debt to be written off or addressed centrally – meaning it would be transferred to the new unitaries.

Cllr Gullis says that LGR could become 'little more than a mechanism for transferring another authority's problems onto the taxpayers of Newcastle-under-Lyme'.

Along with the debt issue, the borough council has also raised concerns over decision-making being moved further away from residents, and the local opposition to a merger with Stoke-on-Trent.

In his letter, Cllr Gullis says the process should be put on hold until these issues can be addressed at meeting.

He says: "We wish to present our objections directly, discuss the unresolved financial risks and set out a constructive alternative based on genuine devolution through a Staffordshire and Shropshire Mayoral Strategic Authority. You now have an opportunity to listen, reconsider and prevent a historic mistake. It is not too late to stop and think again. I urge you to take that opportunity."

Local Government Secretary Steve Reed announced last week that the north-south split would be the LGR model taken forward in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire.

He believes that this option will have the best chance of providing financial stability and opportunties for savings compared to the current two-tier structure.

In a letter to the existing councils, Mr Reed also explained that the north-south split would create 'sensible economic geographies' that would support housebuilding and growth, as well as aligning with existing service delivery.

He said that the east-west division favoured by Staffordshire County Council would 'fragment the functional economic areas around Stoke-on-Trent' and undermine growth.

Mr Reed said: "My selected option will enable housing and land-use planning to be more strategic and respond to the specific circumstances of each area. In particular, I note that the options with a North-South split will better help address housing challenges around the city of Stoke-on-Trent, where contaminated land has restricted opportunities to develop within the current boundaries."

While the borough council has always been against LGR, it proposed a model involving a unitary authority for Newcastle, with three other unitaries covering the rest of Staffordshire.

But Mr Reed said this option failed to meet the government's criteria for LGR, as it would split the functional housing market area of Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle. He said he also had concerns over financial efficiency and how services would be delivered over a small footprint.

Alternative proposals for a north-south split with Stone and Uttoxeter moved into the northern unitary, and for a three-way division of the county, were dismissed as being too complex and having higher set-up costs.

Elections to the new unitaries are set to take place next May, replacing the previously scheduled council elections in Stoke-on-Trent and most parts of Staffordshire. The new unitaries will then take over local services in 2028.