TAXPAYERS are forking out thousands of pounds in legal fees to fight – and lose – planning appeals, councillors have learned.

Members of Worcester City Council planning committee were told the legal fees to battle developers in front of government planning inspectors had topped £30,000 so far this year.

That figure is the city council’s entire appeal fighting fund allocation for the year.

In a worst case scenario as in November 2008, the city council was ordered to pay £37,000 in costs after councillors ignored planning officers’ advice and refused approval for a 14-home development in White Ladies Close, off the Upper Tything.

The city council was found to have acted unreasonably by the inspector and the money had to be found from the city council’s corporate budget.

In 2008/09 the council spent £76,000 in fees, while in 2007/08 the figure was £25,000, well above the then £5,000 annual contingency. Fighting any further appeals this year will force the city council to dip into the planning department’s budget or find the money elsewhere in its cash-strapped coffers.

From April 2008 until now, the council has had 33 decisions taken to appeal, with a third of cases going against them. That is just within national best practice planning guidelines.

The fees have gone on hiring barristers and consultants to argue the council’s case but, as we previously reported, money is tight at the city council, which has already had to find £3 million in budget savings.

Paul O’Connor, senior planning officer, told councillors: “In previous years we could have balanced a shortfall using income from the (planning) department and we now know that is no longer the case.

“So these costs are now either picked up by the department or drawn down corporately.”

Coun Geoff Williams, planning committee member, asked that in future the committee is told the cost of fighting appeals. Mr O’Connor, said: “I’m not saying let’s not fight appeals based on costs but there is a dimension in this report that says ‘what is it costing this authority to defend its decisions?’.”

He advised one way of saving money was to rely on the original planning documents drafted at the committee stage rather than shelling out consultancy fees on new reports ahead of any appeal.

Doreen Porter, the council’s legal adviser, said: “You cannot avoid appeal costs entirely.”