A COUNCIL chief admits taxpayers’ money has been wasted trying to get a man to pull down his house.

After a Freedom of Information request by the Gazette, Tendring Council has admitted it spent £14,000 on legal fees in its latest case against Zippy Moonflower, of Wix, at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Tendring Council took the action after Mr Moonflower refused to comply with council enforcement notices telling him to tear down Potters Cottage, on Harwich Road, after he spent thousands of pounds renovating it.

Mr Moonflower was found guilty in May of not complying with the notices and was fined £500 and ordered to pay £250 costs.

But council finance boss Peter Halliday has labelled the court case “a waste of money”.

He said: “We spent £14,000 on a court case that didn’t resolve the issue.

“It didn’t bring down the building, it didn’t bring the planning permission issue to a close.

“It was a method that saw the court say Mr Moonflower hadn’t knocked down his home. That to me is a waste of money.”

Mr Halliday said he was not made aware of the cost before the court case took place as he only “signed off” on overall budgets.

“I don’t get that level of detail and only see the overall budget,” he said.

“There wasn’t the need for extra money for the court case in the current budget, so it didn’t come to me.

“It was a decision taken by others and it’s not a decision I was aware of, which is a worry in itself for me.”

Mr Halliday has previously said he did not wish to see Mr Moonflower made homeless and that both himself and council leader Neil Stock had “grave concerns” over the situation.

Reiterating those concerns, Mr Halliday said he wanted to reach a “positive” outcome.

“I haven’t made any decision on spending more money on the process and it wouldn’t be right to comment further on something that’s ongoing,” said Mr Halliday.

“But I’m very much of the opinion it should be done speedily.”

But despite the case having gone on for 11 years, the council was unable to say how much money overall it had spent on it.