Council legal bill for failed Allianz demolition action revealed

The amount of ratepayer money Waverley Council spent on a controversial legal battle against the demolition of Allianz Stadium in court can be revealed for the first time.

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The amount of ratepayer money Waverley Council spent on its failed bid to halt the demolition of Allianz Stadium can be revealed after an official document outlining the cost was publicly released.

According to the agenda for tonight’s meeting of council, $137,000 was spent on fighting the State Government and Infrastructre NSW on the controversial redevelopment project earlier this year.

The stadium was a major issue during the state New South Wales elections earlier this year, with Labor pushing “schools and hospitals before stadiums” as a key part of their platform to form government.

The project is now well under way after the wreckers got the green light in March. AAP/Dan Himbrechts

The move to fight the case in court has caused widespread division across Waverley Council, whose mayor John Wakefield previously said it launched the action over fears construction could have a significant impact on Waverley residents.

In the document, council attributes almost half of its total $254,000 increase in fees spent on legal consultants to the failed Land and Environment Court action with advocacy group Local Democracy Matters.

The figure of $137,000 is believed to be the money paid to lawyers, though the total council will fork out could yet soar past that after Justice Nicola Pain reserved her judgment on what costs council will have to pay to the state government.

Former Labor leader Michael Daley said he had written to premier Gladys Berejiklian in what became a highly politicised issue earlier this year.. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Waverley Liberal councillor Leon Goltsman said he would advocate for the full cost to ratepayers to be disclosed.

“I am absolutely outraged, I have been saying this since day one,” he said.

“This could go up to 500,000 or 600,000 for a project that wasn’t even in Waverley.”

The bulldozers were eventually called in on March 8 after an injunction preventing work at the site was thrown out of court.

Mayor Wakefiled told the Wentworth Courier he had “no regrets” on the failed action as the wreckers began work, claiming he spent a year writing to the government before going to the courts.