Stop the Stadium faces
paying up to $17,000 in court costs, after its challenge to
the Dunedin City Council's funding of the Forsyth Barr
Stadium was yesterday dismissed.
Justices Mark O'Regan, Ronald Young and Geoffrey Venning, of
the Court of Appeal, heard the case in Wellington last week.
They ruled the council had not acted contrary to the Local
Government Act when it signed a contract with Hawkins
Construction in April.
The court costs are expected to be between $4000 and $5000
for the Court of Appeal hearing, and between $10,000 and
$12,000 for the High Court hearing held in April.
Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin said yesterday those figures were
only a percentage of the actual costs to the council.
The rest, "a substantial cost", would have to be picked up by
the council through ratepayers.
Mr Chin said he was happy with the judgement.
"I hope that brings an end to the matter, and that people
will just get behind the fact that the stadium is happening,
being built as we talk, and that support is going to be there
to ensure it gets built on time and on budget."
He planned to make public the cost to the council, once it
was worked out.
"That's not a criticism of people for doing it. That's their
legal right to do what they did," Mr Chin said.
"But all those things come at a cost."
Stop the Stadium president Bev Butler said by email she had
"decided to respond only by . . . written statement", and,
when telephoned yesterday, her husband, Peter Attwooll, said
Ms Butler would not make any further comment about the
decision.
Stop the Stadium was disappointed with the result, Ms Butler
said in the statement.
But the hearing had forced the council to admit what it told
the High Court in Christchurch about aspects of its funding
was wrong, she said.
"We also thank our devoted members and the majority of the
general public for their never-ending support to fight a
clearly unpopular project."
There was no mention of the group's plans.
