Manningham Council to spend at least $100,000 on legal fees for North East Link Supreme Court challenge
One of the four councils taking the North East Link authority to the Supreme Court over the road project is facing another six-figure legal bill as it fights to limit the damage done to businesses facing an uncertain future.
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Manningham Council will spend at least another $100,000 on legal fees in its upcoming Supreme Court challenge to halt North East Link.
The council revealed the anticipated cost for its participation in the court battle, set to begin on April 24, at a community information session on the road project at its Civic Centre in Doncaster on Thursday night.
Councillors voted unanimously last month to join Boroondara, Whitehorse and Banyule councils in challenging elements of the project in the Supreme Court.
The four councils will contend the legality of the project’s independent Advisory Committee hearing process and Planning Minister Richard Wynne’s assessment of North East Link’s environmental effects statement.
Mayor Paul McLeish told the audience the council couldn’t alter the route of the project, which is set to wipe out the Bulleen Business Precinct and parts of Bulleen Park, the Freeway Golf Course and the Boroondara Tennis Centre.
But Cr McLeish said its advocacy and supreme court action could help minimise the impact of the road project in those locations.
“We are essentially asking the process go back to the start of the environmental effects statement, with the final design exhibited,” he said.
“We want to know if the decisions were lawful, and we believe the EES process should have been more vigorous and based on a detailed design, not a concept.”
Last year, Manningham Leader revealed the council had spent $500,000 on legal fees at the IAC hearing, where they were represented by law firm Harwood Andrews and barrister Rupert Watters.
The hearing ran from July 25 to September 16 and involved hundreds of public submissions and a joint submission from the four councils.
Cr McLeish said the council’s total spend at the Supreme Court would be influenced by the length of the case.
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Chief executive Andrew Day said fees for the Supreme Court challenge would be taken from a dedicated allowance which the council set aside for North East Link legal costs in its 2019-20 budget.
The council said it had “sufficient funding” for any legal costs but did not say how much they had set aside.
A directions hearing for the case will be heard in the Supreme Court on April 24.