Burnside Council’s legal bills may jump after OTR submits new plans for service station in Kensington Park

Burnside council’s legal bill could skyrocket as its fight against plans for a service station in Kensington Park takes a further twist.

• OTR lodges new plan for Kensington Park servo
• Servo plan rejected over noise concerns

Burnside council’s legal bill could skyrocket as its fight against plans for a service station in Kensington Park takes a further twist.

The council has allocated $550,000 this financial year to legal costs — well above the annual average of about $450,000 in the past four years.

It spent more than $1 million in legal fees in 2017/18 with $180,000 going towards fighting Peregrine Corporation’s plans for an OTR service station on the corner of May Tce and Kensington Rd.

Peregrine last week announced a Supreme Court challenge to an Environment, Resources and Development Court decision to disallow that development.

The Shahin-family owned company has also lodged a new application, which is light on detail, for the service station site.

That application has been designated “category 1”, meaning residents cannot lodge objections to the plans.

On The Run has lodged new plans to redevelop the former Ozone service station on Kensington Rd. Picture: Eugene Boisvert

Burnside council chief executive officer Paul Deb said this financial year’s spend on legal fees had been increased in anticipation of the new OTR application.

“This is a continuing matter, initiated in the previous financial year, and was one of the primary contributors to our legal expenses last financial year,” Mr Deb said.

The council will review the budget in February and May this year, and may increase the legal spend.

Mr Deb said the council determined its operational budget based on the prior years’ average, plus “any known additional cost pressures”.

Speaking at a recent council meeting, Cr Grant Piggott said the council had “rightly committed” legal fees to fight the initial service station application because the proposal had “serious detrimental impacts on the community”.

“If the new application is changed to eliminate those effects, there will be no need to expend legal fees,” Cr Piggott said. “If they still exist, it is council responsibility to contest the application.”

Mayor Anne Monceaux said she would continue to try to “contain legal costs”.