Brent Council has incurred legal costs payable to Druces LLP of almost £170,000 including VAT and disbursements in the legal case over restrictive covenants at Preston Manor School an FoI request by Wembley Matters has discovered.
The covenants forbade any new school build on the land and residents had objected to plans for a new primary school on the site. After a risk assessment the council decided to go ahead anyway and seek a removal of the covenants at the Land Tribunal. Residents then objected to the removal of the covenants at the Tribunal and a negotiated settlement is in process which if successful would remove the necessity of a hearing.
Druces was instructed by the school but the council agreed to indemnify the school's legal costs so that the borough's families and children could benefit from 'the new much needed school building'.
In addition the council's legal services have spent 142 hours on the case. The response states that officer time in other departments involved was not recorded.
The council refuse to give the compensation costs involved in settling the case quoting legal advice that the information is exempted from disclosure under section 42 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
In fact I revealed in a previous posting that according to a reliable source, residents had been offered £303,000 to settle their claim. LINK
This makes a total of £473,000 excluding the hours of officer time but this may not be the end of the matter. The council state:
The full response to my FoI request can be found HERE
The covenants forbade any new school build on the land and residents had objected to plans for a new primary school on the site. After a risk assessment the council decided to go ahead anyway and seek a removal of the covenants at the Land Tribunal. Residents then objected to the removal of the covenants at the Tribunal and a negotiated settlement is in process which if successful would remove the necessity of a hearing.
Druces was instructed by the school but the council agreed to indemnify the school's legal costs so that the borough's families and children could benefit from 'the new much needed school building'.
In addition the council's legal services have spent 142 hours on the case. The response states that officer time in other departments involved was not recorded.
The council refuse to give the compensation costs involved in settling the case quoting legal advice that the information is exempted from disclosure under section 42 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
In fact I revealed in a previous posting that according to a reliable source, residents had been offered £303,000 to settle their claim. LINK
This makes a total of £473,000 excluding the hours of officer time but this may not be the end of the matter. The council state:
If the matter is not concluded by negotiated settlement before the hearing, the Council will incur further legal costs and fees for the attendance of expert witness at the hearing.The failure of Children and Families officers to exercise due diligence over the original proposal is proving very costly.
The full response to my FoI request can be found HERE