Otley river fence row erupts again over legal advice (From Wharfedale Observer)

Otley river fence row erupts again over legal advice

7:19pm Thursday 6th December 2007

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CAMPAIGNERS are claiming that legal advice did not instruct Leeds City Council leaders to fence off Otley's riverside.

And MP Greg Mulholland has alleged that documentation he has received under a Freedom of Information request proves that the public has been "misled".

But city council leader Council-lor Andrew Carter has insisted the advice fully vindicates the council's actions and points out that the local authority actually made QC Simon Jackson's opinions public last week, a few days before Mr Mulholland did.

He also hit back at the MP. "I'm astonished any elected representative should be prepared to effectively say we should have flown in the face of legal advice. It's really time Mr Mulholland stopped trying to use this as a political bandwagon," he said.

But Mr Mulholland insisted: "It is right that we now at last have seen the legal advice that we had been told showed why the council had to fence the river in Wharfemeadows Park.

"But we now know, the people of Otley have been misled. The city council has been hiding behind the coroner, then RoSPA, then Counsel - suggesting at every turn it had no choice but to fence the Wharfe. We now know that isn't true.

"Nowhere does it say LCC should fence the river. The advice is clear, that LCC had to ensure it fulfilled its legal duty of care, no-one ever disputed that.

"But there may well have been other ways to do this, and these were clearly not really considered.

"Officers had failed in their duty to come up with their own proposals and instead simply recommended RoSPA's report, which the legal advice makes clear they should not have done.

"Legal services also failed to realise that the RoSPA report was based on a serious error so decision-making was a farce from start to finish.

"We now await to see the conclusions of the Scrutiny Board which is investigating the decisions that led to the fence, but one thing is clear - LCC must face up to its failures and be held to account."

WAG member Sylvia Reid said: "We're delighted because in many respects people can now see that what we said was right all along.

"There's absolutely no mention that the council has to fence off the river, what there is a mention of is a duty of care, but we've never denied that.

"That's why we talked about putting signs up at the park entrances so people could make an informed choice, and perhaps doing something more at the weir and children's play area.

"We want LCC to be honest with the people of Otley and Leeds and say we don't need to fence off the river, and the (2006) RoSPA report was flawed'."

Coun Carter said he had wanted Mr Jackson's advice - a copy of which was sent to ward councillors and Otley Town Council last week - to be made public sooner, but officers were worried because of confidentiality issues.

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