Jeff Champion is in a legal battle with council over expansion plans.
FUNDS have been stripped from Lismore's roads budget and community sporting group grants to pay a $1.3 million legal bill the council has incurred so far in defending two of its planning decisions.
Responding to a question from councillor Neil Marks about how the council was funding its legal defences, Lismore City Council's finance manager Rino Santin said additional funds had to be found as just $100,000 had been allocated for legal expenses in this year's budget. He said $200,000 would come from not proceeding with plans to seal rural roads this year, $40,000 from the scrapping of the sporting groups grant program, $268,000 from interest on investments and about $100,000 from financial assistance grants.
?All of those monies have been tallied up to fund the [legal] figure of $955,000,? Mr Santin said.
He said estimating legal costs to August, the council expected to spend $1.25 million defending its decision to refuse former mayor and owner of Champion Quarry, Jeff Champion's application to expand his quarry.
Another $59,500 was spent unsuccessfully defending the council's objections to the proposed Ubrihien Estate at Goonellabah.
Lismore Council's manager of development and compliance Peter Jeuken slated the blame for the high cost of the Champion Quarry case back to Mr Champion.
He wrote in this month's council papers that numerous late changes to the proposal meant council incurred extra costs in having its legal experts review ?what has become a constantly evolving application, including large volumes of additional plans?.
Mr Jeuken said council had clawed back $136,000 of the ?unreasonable costs? incurred by the council due to the constant changes, and more ?cost recovery actions? were being pursed in the Land and Environment Court. Cr Marks said the cost of the Champion case ?paled? other legal expenses into ?insignificance?.
?Asking the question last night, I was trying to make the point that there is a lot of community work that is not being done to fund almost $1 million in legal fees (in the Champion case),? he said.
?I wonder if there was a better way it (the decision rejecting the quarry's application) could have been done earlier.?
?I think it is also important for a council to stand up for its community where it feels the development is not in accordance with the environment planning act, and we stood up,? he said.
Source: http://www.northernstar.com.au/story/2011/05/12/13m-legal-blowout-council-lismore-planning/
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