A NEW councillor has called in lawyers to settle a £20,000 dispute with the authority he now represents.

Brian Ayling, who was elected as an independent councillor in this month’s elections, claims Southend Council has refused to settle the legal bill over a three-year-old planning row.

He has now asked solicitors to try to bring an end to the dispute.

He said: “I just want it to be over.

“Now I am a councillor, I also want to see some changes made in the planning department.

“They should be helping residents, not causing misery for them.”

Mr Ayling’s clash with the council was sparked by a log cabin he built in the garden of a block of four flats in Ennismore Gardens, Prittlewell, in 2004.

Although he had planning permission for the building, council chiefs reacted angrily when he moved into the cabin five years later.

They claimed the permission did not extend to using the structure as a permanent home and tried to throw him out.

But Mr Ayling took the fight to the Government and won his appeal in 2010.

A year later, the Planning Inspectorate ruled the council had acted “unreasonably” and ordered the authority to pay Mr Ayling’s costs. However, chiefs balked at his demands for £20,000, which he said covered the hundreds of hours he had spent fighting his corner.

Mr Ayling’s reduced offer of £5,000 was also reportedly rejected before Christmas last year, with the council believed to want to settle for a figure closer to £1,000.

John Williams, the council’s head of legal and democratic services, said: “The council and Mr Ayling are currently attempting to reach an agreement on an appropriate figure.

“In the absence of an agreement, it is open to Mr Ayling to apply for an assessment by the senior courts costs office.”