Adderbury villagers will know the Parish Council successfully fought two applications for judicial review mounted by a local resident who does not like to be named and secured a High Court decision to dismiss them as “without merit”. It cost the parish council over £6,000 in solicitor’s and barrister’s fees to fight these applications. However, the parish council asked the Court to make an award for costs against the applicant and parish councillors have just been advised that the High Court has made an order to the applicant to pay the parish council’s legal costs. He has fourteen days to contest the Court order so I am not holding my breath in waiting for the cheque and, based on past history, have no doubt the full majesty of legal argument will be deployed to try to counter the Court order.
I write as a member of the parish council, speaking entirely for myself but basing the statement on the information provided by our proper officer. I do so because many villagers were appalled that the parish council had to incur such costs in fighting these applications and deserve to know where things stand. When the cheque is banked in the parish council accounts, I will be opening a bottle of something fizzy.
More complaints about anonymity. Whenparishioners are free to comment without their details being splashed about on village websites, including the Parish Council’s, and scurrilous “new” websites don’t attack them at each turn, we might see more people owning their views and speaking out.
Since the Parish Council hiked the precept by 8.5%, blaming the cost of legal advice re the Judicial Reviews, can we now expect a rebate in the council tax?
You should be aware that there was widespread support for the Judicial Reviews and a belief that the Parish Council did not acquit itself well in its treatment of the parishioner involved. The Parish Council had the offer of settling the matter at zero cost, but refused to co-operate under the pre-action protocol as required by the civil procedure rules.
In spite of its attempt to vilify a parishioner who tried to exercise his democratic right, the Parish Council has only itself to blame for this needless expense, which it now appears to have recovered not once but twice! And despite your implication in a reply to my previous post, I pay council tax.
You clearly have a lot of time on your hands so I am not going to waste too much of my limited time on you but I will put two responses to you:
1 If you were a judge or a member of a jury, would you place more credence on evidence from an individual who gave his name and address than to someone making anonymous allegations?
2 You do not appear on the Electoral Roll so you do not seem to live in Adderbury? What right do you claim to speak for Adderbury residents, to have knowledge of their views and how can I believe you are not simply a stooge of our lawyer friend in the village or even him using a nom de guerre?
It is clear that the only argument in your intellectual tool box is repeated ad hominem attacks. Whether I am a stooge or not, an adderbury resident or not (and I have confirmed I pay council tax), totally without claim to represent my fellow residents or not, is irrelevant to the points I raised which you ignore.
Truth does not become a lie, even if spoken by an inveterate liar…..instead of trying to discredit me and the writer on saveadderbury, accept the challenge I made to you and tell which statements are untrue and show me proof. You show your experience as a politician when you change the subject, trying to impugn the source rather than the content of the argument. It is not an edifying spectacle,
For the record, I am not a lawyer, nor a friend of any lawyers, just a Parishioner who would like the Parish Council and its members to behave respectfully towards those they are supposed to serve.