THE verdict is still to come.
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The Shellharbour City Council has played its card by appealing to the Land and Environment Court in Sydney opposing the Baird Government’s forced merger with Wollongong.
Shellharbour argued on Thursday that the merger process had been unfair.
Yet there must have been some nervous eyes cast from the Shellharbour City Council to the Botany Bay Council.
A Supreme Court threw out another appeal by the Botany Bay Council on Thursday.
The Botany Bay Council was forced to pay court costs by the Supreme Court.
“This litigation has been costly for the council and its ratepayers, with legal bills potentially running into hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Local Government Minister Paul Toole Toole said.
Botany Bay’s case if different to the case being made by Shellharbour but there is some “common ground”.
Ultimately, the longer the Shellharbour case drags on through to the courts the bigger the legal bill will be.
If the council loses, then it is likely Shellharbour ratepayers – and the Wollongong ratepayers for that matter _ will be forced to foot the bill.
It could turn into a very costly exercise all round.
Meanwhile, both cities remain in council limbo land not knowing exactly where they stand.
We will wait for the umpire’s decision, but it will be interesting if Shellharbour City chooses to keep pushing beyond that.
Only time and an awful lot of money will tell in the end.
MEL’S CRIPPLING CONDITION
Mel Greig is the bright and bubbly radio personality you would expect her to be,
Underneath though she suffers from endometriosis, a condition that affects one in 10 Australian women.
The condition affects a woman’s reproductive organs and can cause incredible pain.
“For me, it causes pain at that time of month; some months I’m okay, others I’m bedridden. Sometimes the pain is so bad I have had to be hospitalised; where every step I take feels like someone is stabbing me in the stomach,’’ Mel told the Illawarra Mercury this week.
Mel has become an ambassador for Endometriosis Australia and is using her profile to help raise attention to the condition many suffer. Great work Mel.
