Judge awards council £2m in interim costs as arena battle rumbles on

A High Court judge has awarded Leeds City Council £2m in interim costs in the latest stage of a bitter dispute with a property developer over the building of a new arena.

However, lawyers for the developer, Montpellier Estates, shrugged off the ruling and vowed to take the case to the Court of Appeal.

In February, Mr Justice Supperstone dismissed Montpellier’s £43.5m claim in which the company alleged procurement breaches and, initially, deceit when the local authority ended a competition to build the Leeds Arena and chose to develop a separate site it owned.

Montpellier, which had taken part in the original competition, claimed to have received assurances from the council that it did not intend to build the arena itself.

Awarding Leeds £2m in interim costs, Mr Justice Supperstone said that the claim for deceit should never have been brought.

The judge refused Montpellier permission to take the procurement element of its case to appeal. He also rejected the company’s request for a stay on payment of part of the costs pending an appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Leeds City Council leader Councillor Keith Wakefield said: “We welcome the judge’s decision and council taxpayers will be pleased to hear that we are well on the way to recovering £2m of public money and will now be looking towards further recovery of our costs, which were well in excess of £4m.”

Malcolm Simpson, a partner at Montpellier’s law firm Walker Morris, said: “This was the first stage of an appeal process and we anticipated that Mr Justice Supperstone – who gave the original judgment – would refuse our right to appeal.

“Montpellier Estates will now be taking this through the normal appeal process, which is to the Court of Appeal.”

Earlier this month Leeds handed over the completed arena building to SMG Europe, who will operate the venue.