Solicitors in the best value ­tendering pilot areas have written a hard-hitting letter to the Legal Services Commission condemning the ‘unrealistic and perilous’ timescale for the pilot, which will spell ‘disaster’ for firms.

Half of the 141 firms with criminal contracts in Avon and Somerset and Greater Manchester – including a ‘significant majority’ of the largest providers in Manchester – have signed a letter to Carolyn Regan, LSC chief executive, asking for a six-month window between publication of the proposal details and the first stage of the bidding process.

The bid round, which will be conducted by online auction, is due to begin in October.

However, details of the scheme, which is opposed by the profession, have yet to be published.

The letter says that even the largest firms lack the marketing resources and accounting and statistical analysis facilities they will need to formulate sustainable bid proposals.

It calls the ‘absurdly limited and unprecedentedly short time­frame’ for the pilot ‘reckless in the extreme’.

Franklin Sinclair, partner at Manchester firm Tuckers, said a ‘significant majority’ of the larger firms in the pilot areas have signed the letter, adding that the current timetable was ‘beyond belief’. An LSC spokesman said it is taking ‘every possible step’ to ensure providers were ready.