More than $2 million has been spent in one year on legal advice for Northland councils.
In the most recent financial or calendar year, Northland's councils spent a total of $2,457,506 in legal fees, including Kaipara District Council $1,150,038; Whangarei District Council $460,000; Far North District Council $477,264 and Northland Regional Council $370,204.
NRC figures show the largest legal bill for a single court case was $31,653, spent on the prosecution of two Northland farmers who made cuts through a stopbank. The farmers carried out the illegal works on the Whangarei District Council-owned Hikurangi swamp flood management scheme to divert and discharge floodwater back into the Wairua River. One was fined $67,500 and the other $45,000.
NRC finance manager Simon Crabb said council would receive 90 per cent of both of those amounts.
Last year, the NRC spent $47,952 on three prosecutions in the district court, $24,602 on two prosecutions in the Environment Court and $21,619 on an Employment Relations Authority case. It spent $10,069 on two resource consent appeals. The council spent $262,754 on other legal fees associated with commercial advice, property transactions, employment, local government and environmental legal advice and other appeals and legal opinions.