A COUNCIL is to gamble with another £100,000 of taxpayers’ money fighting a long-running legal battle that has already set it back more than £500,000.

Civic chiefs in Eastleigh have decided to appeal against a high court decision ruling they could not stop a controversial housing development in Hedge End.

The move, agreed behind closed doors, has been criticised as a waste of public money at a time when the council has cut other services.

Eastleigh Borough Council has already been left with a huge legal bill after turning down plans for a development of 184 new homes on the Wildern Mill site, off Turnpike Way, three and a half years ago.

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After receiving around 500 complaints from residents, councillors threw out the application because it didn’t include enough affordable housing provisions.

Town Quay Developments appealed to a public planning inquiry, and after the firm won, the authority was ordered to cover its costs, setting it back £140,000.

The company then successfully took the council to the High Court in July 2007 because it was refusing permission to build an access road across nearby land it owns, essentially preventing the homes being built.

But Eastleigh’s Cabinet has now agreed to sanction even more cash to allow an appeal of its own against that judgement.

Councillors believe that with legal advice suggesting it has a 60/40 chance of success, the authority stands to gain much more if it wins.

Although the council’s auditors had urged them to get a second legal opinion after being asked to investigate the authority’s actions by opposition councillors, they have decided to go ahead with the gamble.

If the council wins, Town Quay would then have to stump up the £400,000 total already spent on the legal wranglings, plus whatever is spent by both sides on the latest appeal.

If it loses, the authority will face further legal costs of up to £100,000.

Diane Andrewes, of the Eastleigh Southern Parishes Older People’s Forum, said she thinks the authority needs “its collective head examined”. She has been campaigning against the authority’s decision to scrap travel tokens for frail pensioners. Earlier this year, the council granted a partial reprieve by agreeing to subsidise the hospital outpatients’ service at a cost of £20,000, but refused to reinstate the tokens.

“One has to ask whether the council has its priorities right, when it can risk so much public money which could have been spent on worthier causes, such as the travel tokens,” she said.

An Eastleigh Borough Council spokesman confirmed the authority is now proceeding with the appeal, which is likely to be heard in October.

Town Quay Developments were unavailable for comment.