LEGAL SERVICES

This division provides a full legal service to the Council. This includes advising councillors, officers and committees and implementing decisions taken (if necessary,
by instituting proceedings in the Courts). Specialist expertise in particular subjects may be obtained from private firms of solicitors, or from Counsel, via the
legal division.

Below is the heirarchy of the department, click on the red text to take you to the Land Charges Section.

Dept. Dir. Head of Law	Andrew Gardiner
Land Charges Officer	Jacqui Ryan
Assistant Solicitor	Bruce Bennett
Senior Lawyer	Paul Druce
Senior Legal Assistant	Sarah Keenan
Legal Assistant	Karen Shand

PRINCIPAL TASKS (in alphabetical order)

Corporate
Legal Advice

Propriety Role

Providing
Legal Services

Local Land Charges

Corporate Legal Advice

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The legal division monitors developments in both statute and case law and advises councillors and officers of likely implications of any such developments on the Council's work. Legal staff attend committee meetings to give advice on law and procedure.

Propriety Role

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The legal division should ensure good formal procedures within the authority and has a central role in drafting standing orders which govern the conduct of Council and committee meetings, as well as the letting of contracts.

Propriety is concerned not only with identifying actual and potential breaches of the law by the Council, and their prevention, but also with the general oversight of all the Council's decision-making processes, so as to ensure that the Council does not act beyond its powers or create other legal difficulties for itself.

Providing Legal Services Select another Task

The legal division can give oral or written legal advice on all matters affecting local government, and undertakes conveyancing, landlord and tenant and compulsory purchase work as well as debt recovery and tenancy repossessions in the County Court. It conducts prosecutions for offences under highways, planning, housing, road traffic and environmental law and drafts a variety of agreements and contracts. A Council lawyer may appear to put the Council's case in public inquiries and tribunals, or act as instructing solicitor when briefing a barrister on the Council's behalf in public inquiries, or, Crown Court or High Court cases.

Local Land Charges Select another Task

The Land Charges section maintains the register of local land charges against which prospective purchasers of property can search and discover whether there are any public law obligations affecting the land. There may for instance be a "financial charge" where the authority has carried out works on the land and not recovered its expenditure, or a "planning charge" restricting the use of the land.

Click on the Local Land Charges heading above for more on Land Charges including up-to-date information on the fees charged, e-mail addresses and the turnaround time for searches.