Leeds councillor to take fight for confidential papers to appeal court

A Leeds councillor who lost a court battle to force his own council to hand over confidential papers is to take his fight to the court of appeal in London. Councillor John Illingworth says he is determined to get access to the report - even though a High Court judge last month ruled against his bid to take Leeds council to a Judicial Review and made him pay court costs of nearly £2,000. The councillor of 32 years - who represented himself - was challenging the council's refusal to show him the working file for the 2003 annual meeting of council. He claimed the council had only disclosed part of the file. Illingworth claimed that councillors did not agree to give council officers powers to approve delegated planning applications. The Labour Kirkstall member alleges the paperwork was later added without councillors approving the changes and that the council relied on these documents when defending a 2009 High Court case. After hearing Illingworth's application, Mr Justice Langstaff said that a Judicial Review was inappropriate, and that a request through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was the more appropriate procedure. Illingworth, who is seeking a council scrutiny inquiry into the affair, says he hopes that an appeal court judge might look more favourably. He said a Judicial Review was necessary as his FOI request made 10 months ago still hadn't revealed the information he was after. He said: "I'm still hoping that my FOI request will flush out the papers. But I can't wait for something that may never happen. I feel I must challenge the decision and get access to the papers and I feel that Mr Justice Langstaff's decision was flawed." Illingworth said he was half-way through filing papers to the court and it was too early to say whether he would represent himself again. He had no idea when his appeal would be heard. Leeds council said that it had no comment to make. The court case was reported on this blog and was previewed by the YEP .