ABC Council has forked out almost £5million in legal expenses in the last five years, Armagh I can reveal.
A grand total of £4,842,249 has been spent by the local authority since the beginning of the 2019/20 financial year – up until April 2024.
The figure was revealed following a Freedom of Information request by Armagh I.
The cost breakdowns are as follows: 2019/20 £1,054,870; 2020/21 £1,184,702; 2021/22 £734,507; 2022/23 £1,143,193; 2023/24 £724,977.
Armagh I requested a breakdown of the expenditure, however, Council stated that the the above costs include the salaries of the authority’s internal legal staff.
A spokesperson added: “Having considered the above aspect of your request in terms of the reasons for other legal costs, Council is of the opinion that it is too vast to facilitate and extract any relevant information held.
“Council does not have a central record of the reasons for incurring other legal costs. Therefore, in order to fulfil this aspect of your request officers would have to carry out manual searches of their records to locate, extract and collate any recorded information, that may be held within Council records, in order to determine whether they hold or contain the information requested and then extract and verify those that could be relevant, to enable Council to answer the query submitted.
“Council considers that, in its current form, this aspect of the request is too extensive and searches would place a significant burden on the authority which would result in the diversion of resources from day-to-day duties.
“Under the Freedom of Information Act, Section 12 prevents the burden on Council from becoming too onerous, therefore, the application of the exemption means Council is not obliged to comply with this aspect of your request.”
Nonetheless, in 2024, it was revealed that a botched planning application for a new Southern Regional College campus at Craigavon Lakes – and its subsequent legal battle – saw ABC Council fork out £1.3 million in legal costs.
Costs had originally been reported at approximately £800,000 back in 2022, however, a more recent Freedom of Information request has revealed the costs – which will be picked up by the ratepayer – as being significantly higher.
Amounts incurred include £402,039.90 for Council’s legal costs relating to an initial Judicial Review, a further £297,148.70 in legal costs associated with proceedings at the Court of Appeal and £387,977.84 incurred by Council in respect of the applicant’s legal costs.
Council also incurred £165,397.00 for legal costs and £7,579.92 for a consultant in respect of the original planning application and decision.
