CLUNE Park property owners are today facing a £200,000 headache in their legal battle to prevent Inverclyde Council from bulldozing the private Port housing scheme.

Sheriff Derek Hamilton has ruled that deposits regarding around 250 individual appeals against the local authority’s demolition plans must be lodged within 28 days.

The lawman declared: “There will be no ‘Tesco discounts’ for individuals who own multiple properties.

“We only need one appeal from each block of properties in order to proceed.” Lawyer Kenneth Carruthers wanted a number of deposit fees shelved until agreement had been reached on which cases finally go forward to evidential hearings later this year.

Mr Carruthers, of legal firm Morton Fraser, said: “The maximum deposit is £2,225 and we are dealing here with my clients having to find some £200,000 in 28 days.” Sheriff Hamilton remarked that non-payment of some deposits would be ‘all well’ if all owners ‘agreed to be bound’ by his final determination on the overall matter.

He told Mr Carruthers: “If you can agree something with the council then that is something I would take into account.” The sheriff said that he did not want to waive any deposits at this stage because each case currently before the court is individual and must be dealt with as such.

He cautioned that he didn’t want cases where a deposit hadn’t been paid ‘coming back’ as a consequence of his ultimate ruling.

Sheriff Hamilton, inset, added: “If you don’t get deposits together then decisions will have to be made on whether actions are dismissed or not.” He also rebuked Mr Carruthers for submitting ‘unhelpful’ papers to the court.

The sheriff said: “We are simply here to bump on all cases because we are not where we thought we might be.

“I had hoped that appeal interlocutors would be sent out before Christmas but that has not happened because one agent didn’t put down submissions on time.

“Therefore, the deposit interlocutors could only be sent out this week.” Turning to Mr Carruthers’ written submission, he said: “I don’t know what you expect the sheriff clerk to do with your document.

“You must lodge inventories stating what cases you are referring to.

“What we have is not helpful to me, the clerk or the respondents.” Local authority bosses — who commissioned a structural report from Greenock-based consultants ATK — want to raze Clune Park to the ground as part of a proposed £2.6 million regeneration project.

But long-standing landlords and owner occupiers say they have a rival report and expert witnesses lined up to prove that the estate is not beyond repair.

Mr Carruthers told the court that there was now ‘broad agreement’ with the council on which specific buildings ‘provide a representative example from which conclusions can be drawn’.

He said: “If the view is that ATK got it wrong then our expectation would be that the council would throw in the towel.

“The whole council case is a single issue matter.” But Jonathan Barne QC, representing the council, responded: “This is not a single issue. It is a progressive structural problem with the properties.

“Progress of the defect might not be as adverse in one building compared with another. There are a whole basket of issues.” Mr Barne added: “We will instruct ATK to respond to the reports submitted by Mr Carruthers’ clients.” Sheriff Hamilton said: “We are dealing with a large number of cases and have to be strict with time limits, otherwise the whole thing will become completely chaotic.

“I am not prepared to allow that to happen.” The sheriff continued all preliminary matters until 1 May.