LGOIMA Request Details: LG2124

I refer to your official information request dated 11 November 2022.

Here is a link to the correspondence to the owner between 2008 to 2013. – add link

Also, here is a link to the correspondence about LG 2113 – add link

These links will expire in 7 days, so please remember to save anything you wish to have continued access to.

Since then, there has been no direct correspondence between Council officers and the owner, all communication has been with the owners solicitor via Councils solicitor and is the subject of common interest privilege. Common interest privilege arises where privileged material is disclosed to another party with a common interest in the subject matter at the time of disclosure.

Correspondence on ‘other matters’ would be correspondence between Council and our solicitor, which is withheld under section 7 (2)(g) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, in order to maintain legal professional privilege. 

The existing legal privilege in place between Council and our solicitor relates to litigation privilege (Council are defendants in a proceeding and being advised in respect of that litigation). There are then 3 prerequisites for the existence of common interest privilege:

• the parties who are alleged to be entitled to the privilege must have a common interest in the subject matter of the communications in respect of which the claim is made;
• the common interest must be identical or, if not identical, then closely related (so similar that it would be unsuitable to treat the parties claiming the privilege separately); and
• the common interest may be either legal or commercial.

In our view, these factors exist in this case. This means that the two parties are in effect treated as one for the purpose of privilege (including waiver, which would require the owners consent).