Friday brief: Spend of borough council involved in miscarriage of justice lawsuit revealed

Plus: Cost of affordable housing project goes up, council to back calls to stop Universal Credit cut, Corby Cube to become new civic centre and new meeting for anti-knife crime group

East Northamptonshire Council spent just under £400,000 in its final financial year on payment to legal firms.

The authority, which closed in April this year to make way for the new North unitary, was in a five-year battle with wronged publican Geoff Monks, former landlord of the Snooty Fox in Lowick, who was jailed in the early 2000s for minor food safety offences prosecuted by the council.

In 2015 he had his conviction overturned and now wants the authority to pay up for his lost earnings. 

The civil legal action is still ongoing and could cost the new unitary authority as much as £14m in damages. The two sides are now understood to be in mediation, but if nothing is agreed the matter could be decided in a high court trial.

Our Freedom of Information request has revealed the authority spent £396,286.21 on legal costs in its final year, more than double what it had spent the year previously. The unitary authority, which carries out the FOI requirements, will not release the names of the …