DISTRICT council chiefs have refused to bail out Witney Town Council after it ran up a £143,000 legal bill fighting developers of a community hall.

The town council wracked up the bill losing a legal case against contractor Beam Construction over alleged problems with Madley Park Hall It then asked West Oxfordshire District Council to reimburse the cash, but district councillors said they were not “the bank rollers of legal action”.

The bill will wipe almost a third off the town council’s £430,000 general reserves.

District councillors were also concerned the town council had not considered the implications of losing the legal action because it thought it would win. The £900,000 hall, in Northfield Farm Lane, officially opened in June, seven months later than planned.

It was delayed after the town council refused to take ownership of it, saying the building’s maple wood floor and lighting gantry were not up to scratch.

It brought in an independent inspector, who found the floor had a “manufacturing fault” and was “fitted unacceptably”.

The floor and lighting rig were then condemned, the contract with Beam ended, the locks changed and a new firm brought in to finish the job.

But Beam took the council to an independent adjudicator, who found the floor looked “very good indeed” and that the gantry claims “looked exaggerated”.

The council disputed this finding and argued, at the High Court, that the adjudicator had no power to decide on the disagreement.

However, Mr Justice Akenhead ruled in favour of Beam, saying the adjudicator had jurisdiction.

At last Wednesday’s district council cabinet meeting, councillors grilled town council clerk Sharon Groth over the legal battle.

Simon Hoare, district council cabinet member for finance, asked Ms Groth who had made the decision to take legal action.

She said: “The arbitration was delegated to the mayor and the chair of the finance committee because the council only meets six times a year as a full council. Events overtook the democratic process, so it was delegated.”

Mr Hoare then asked: “Did you have a financially-led discussion of whether you could afford to lose?”

Ms Groth said: “We did not have a discussion because we thought we would win the case.”

The cabinet decided the district council could not use remaining cash, provided by the developers of the Madley Park estate, to finance the legal battle.

They said that money was only to be used for the building’s construction and legal bills fell outside what was allowed in the contract.

But Mr Hoare added: “I was concerned to hear that it appears there was no robust debate or analysis about looking into the scenario of losing the adjudication.”

The cabinet decided the remaining cash will be used to fund outstanding work on the building and help set up and run a charitable trust to manage the hall.

At the meeting, Ms Groth said: “We engaged professional support in good faith and, personally, I feel the council is the victim of injustice.”

She said the district council’s decision would “impact on the budget going forward” but said it was too early to say whether it would affect council tax.