Wollondilly Council has defended spending almost $30,000 on legal fees to fight former councillor Lynette Styles in court last year over her controversial book, Antill Golf Club Associates.
Ms Styles, upset because council stopped her from officially launching her book in Picton Library – which she considered to be effectively a ban – eventually demanded council pay the $125 price of the book.
The case went to court in 2022, which ordered council pay the $125.
Following the case Ms Styles, pictured above, hit out at council for using thousands of dollars of ratepayers’ money for legal fees.
Now she says she has been vindicated because a freedom of information application (these days known as GIPA) proves she was right.
Ms Styles supplied the South West Voice with a copy of the GIPA information, which showed council’s legal fees on the case were $29,977.39.
“This figure doesn’t include all the time the inhouse lawyer Bruce McCann spent on dealing with my claim for $125 over a six month period,’’ Ms Styles said.
“Council refused to give me that claiming it was personal information.
“I filed a GIPA application for the legal expenses information after Council CEO Ben Taylor publicly stated that my estimate of $12,000 was fake news.’’
In response, Wollondilly Council, which points out that Ms Styles initially donated the book to Picton Library, says it had no option but to respond to the legal proceedings.
“Council repeatedly offered to pay for this book, which for reasons known only to the author she refused to accept and instead decided to take Council to Court,’’ says acting CEO Peter Buckley.
“Council cannot ignore legal proceedings, so instead took the most cost-effective action available which was to seek to have the matter dismissed.
“By Order of the Court the matter was withdrawn and dismissed. It is hard to understand why anyone would seek to waste ratepayer funds on such frivolous action,” Mr Buckley said.
