Waste dispute legal bills remain secret despite Coffs councillor’s query

The specifics of the dispute have remained confidential but eyebrows were raised when one Cr revealed council had spent “the better part of $1m” in legal fees.

Coffs Harbour City Council and Biomass Solutions have entered arbitration over undisclosed contractual disputes.

The amount of money Council has spent on lawyers during contractual disputes over waste will remain confidential, for now.

Cr Paul Amos asked council staff for the amount of money spent on “legal fees contesting contractual disputes with our current waste services provider” during this current term.

Staff provided a response ahead of Thursday’s Coffs Harbour City Council meeting together with legal advice relating to the public release of a key briefing memo documenting the legal proceedings, which includes the cost.

HWL Ebsworth partner Sonya Kroon advises the briefing memo cannot be disclosed “as Council is not permitted to do so under the arbitration rules” but goes on to state they had not considered whether legal costs could be released.

Cr Paul Amos has submitted a question on notice to the upcoming Council meeting. He wants to know how much money has been spent on legal disputes with a waste contractor Photo: Tim Jarrett

“If required, further consideration could also be given as to whether it is permissible for Council to provide a global figure for costs for the disputes,” Ms Kroon states.

Ms Kroon goes on to question the “utility and prudence” of releasing the figure with “no context”.

 While the specifics of the dispute have remained confidential, the parties have been in arbitration for some time and eyebrows were raised in April when Sally Townley revealed council had spent “the better part of $1 million” in legal fees.

Arbitration is a means of resolving commercial contractual disputes and is an alternative to litigation in court.

The request for information is one of the three related to the ongoing issues in waste management in Coffs Harbour coming up at Thursday’s council meeting.

Cr Amos’ question is one of three items relating to waste services at Thursday’s Coffs Harbour City Council meeting. Photo Trevor Veale / Coffs Coast Advocate

Another item relates to the details of an Environmental Protection Agency concept, described as an “opportunity” by Council staff in the business papers. The item is confidential.

Also on the agenda is a plan toraise the walls of the tip to ensure it can continue operating until 2029.

Landfill capacity at the Englands Road landfill site is due to run out in 2023 and without an alternative in place Councillors will have to decide on whether to raise the walls 10 metres to keep up with demand.