A local councillor owes £34,515 in legal costs after leading the fight on behalf of local residents to keep alcohol misuse off the streets. Please help him to meet this massive bill.

Cambridge City Councillor Richard Robertson has lost a legal action seeking to ensure that the City Council applied its own policy relating to street-drinking and has had costs awarded against him.

He is now obliged to pay £28,132 to the Co-op and Cambridge City Council towards the costs of lawyers they hired to defend the Licencing Sub-Committee decision taken in 2021. Combined with his own legal fees of £6,383, Richard needs to find a total of £34,515.

Please help him pay these fees. He brought forward the appeal to protect local residents from increased alcohol related anti-social behaviour, and has found himself with heavy costs awarded against him.

The Story

In June 2021 the Cambridge City Council licensing sub-committee granted a premises licence for the sale of alcohol to the Co-op store at 44A Mill Road despite opposition to the licence from the police, local councillors, and over 50 local residents.

Local residents were dismayed and very concerned that this would lead to an increase in alcohol-related anti-social behaviour to levels which they had suffered in the past. Reducing the extent of those problems had been greatly assisted by the City Council designating the area as what is called a Cumulative Impact Zone, an area where new applications for licenses to sell alcohol are expected to be rejected because of the existing concentration of shops selling alcohol.

A group of residents came together and decided to appeal the City Council’s decision, and local councillor Richard Robertson agreed to take the appeal forward. The Co-op requested to participate in the defence of the appeal as a related party and this was accepted by the court.

After some delays the hearing took place in Colchester on 9 March 2022. The appeal was rejected in a judgment issued on 14 June. The Co-op and the City Council sought compensation for their full costs in participating in the appeal (£62,794). In November the judge instructed that a significant portion of these costs should be awarded (£28,132), albeit noting that the approach taken by the City Council and the Co-op was excessive in the context of such an appeal.

In the end, the Co-op was awarded £15,250 and the City Council £12,882. With his own barrister’s fees of £6,383, this means that Councillor Robertson owes £34,515.

What went wrong?

Appeals against council licensing decisions normally go to local Magistrates to resolve, so they can apply their knowledge of the area to cases brought before them. Unfortunately, Cambridgeshire Magistrates decided they could not deal with the case. As a result the appeal faced the significant problem of describing the alcohol related problems faced by residents in the Mill Road area of Cambridge to a District Judge in Colchester 60 miles away.

In spite of these additional challenges, the advice obtained from an experienced barrister supported the case to appeal. On this basis Cllr Robertson decided to proceed in the interests of protecting the integrity of the Cumulative Impact Zone policy.

However, Cllr Robertson was up against a much more experienced legal team from the Co-op and City Council, with the Co-op appointing a QC who is the leading counsel in the country on licensing matters. The points on which the Council’s decision was upheld are highly nuanced in the judgement.

The situation today

According to the police, despite all the arrangements for providing security, the new Coop store has suffered from theft and attempted theft of alcohol. Anti-social behaviour by street drinkers continues in the area. Cambridge City Council works with the police, social services and other agencies dealing with the issues behind street drinking. Restricting the availability of alcohol is a fundamental component to this work and one which Cllr Robertson was seeking to ensure the Council upheld.

Councillor Robertson needs your help.

Please help if you can. Although this sum is daunting, please show your support by giving what you can. Although this legal challenge did not succeed, the issue was raised and publicised. It will help us tackle any further applications to sell alcohol in the Mill Road area.