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19

May 2021

Politics
Politics

Harrogate council's judicial review bill amounted to £74,000

Published: 19 May 2021, 06:15 BST

by Thomas Barrett

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Developer Flaxby Park brought the judicial review after the council opted for a site at Green Hammerton over Flaxby as the location for a new 3,000-home settlement in the district.

flaxbyparksite
The Flaxby Park site, which the council decided against including in the local plan.

Harrogate Borough Council has revealed it paid Flaxby Park £17,000 in legal costs after last year's judicial review between the two parties.

The sum is in addition to the £57,360 the council spent on its own legal fees to contest the case.

It means the council's full legal bill for the long-running saga amounted to £74,360.

The developer brought the judicial review after the council opted for a site at Green Hammerton over Flaxby as the location for a new 3,000-home settlement in the district. It claimed the process was flawed.

At October's High Court hearing, Mr Justice Holgate ruled in the council's favour by saying it did not have to make the decision again.

But he ordered the council to pay 15% of Flaxby’s legal costs because it failed to adequately consider an environmental assessment of alternative locations for the settlement.



Read more:




  • Flaxby fails to stop Green Hammerton development at High Court




  • Flaxby vs Green Hammerton: the saga so far…







The council initially refused to say how much it had spent on legal fees.

The Stray Ferret sent a request under the Freedom of Information Act for the information but the council said it was exempt from disclosure because its lawyers’ legal fees should remain private.

We requested an internal review of this decision. Joanne Barclay, acting chief solicitor for corporate services, overturned the council’s decision and revealed the fee paid.

Today's revelation of the sum paid to Flaxby means the full legal cost of the review is finally known.