INVERCLYDE Council will not appeal a landmark legal defeat over its 'unreasonable and unjust' Clune Park policy — after spending nearly £55,000 of public money fighting a losing battle.

The local authority — which wants the entire eyesore estate demolished — wrongly pursued property owners for money under a law that is designed to bring empty homes back into use.

Now council officials who privately advised elected members to continue charging the Long Term Empty (LTE) levy are recommending it be scrapped for Clune Park in the wake of the legal loss.

A report which will publicly go before the policy and resources committee today advises against lodging an appeal against the valuation appeal committee (VAC) decision to the Court of Session.

Meanwhile, the council — which charged the LTE levy for six years — is now re-examining its Clune Park strategy more than a decade after launching a £2.6m plan to regenerate the area.

The committee report states: "There will undoubtedly be questions regarding the impact the VAC decision will have on the strategy for Clune Park.

"It would be the intention of officers to provide a comprehensive update on this matter [in August]."

In a ruling issued last month, the Scottish Assessors VAC committee found that the council's use of the LTE levy at Clune Park had been 'unreasonable and unjust and not been in keeping with the legislative intention of Parliament'.

However, the council won a case over its decision not to award a council tax exemption for the empty flats.

The local authority says it's facing a 'worst case scenario' net loss of cancelling the LTE levy of around £355,000.

Its report adds: "There remain considerable council tax debts in relation to many of the owners/landlords within Clune Park and these debts exceed the district valuer value of the properties.

"This highlights the extent of the challenges faced by the council in both collecting the sums due and progressing the Clune Park Strategy."

Property owner Gordon Ewing — who brought the LTE levy case — said following his victory last month: "I sincerely hope that this opens the door for Inverclyde Council negotiating properly with property owners.

"Hopefully this will bring to an end the court fights and subsequent cost to the public purse.

"Fingers crossed this is the beginning of the end of the Clune Park saga."

The council lost civil legal proceedings against Clune Park landlords in 2016 after spending in the region of £1m on litigation and other expenses.

A sheriff stating at the time that its bid to bulldoze the estate was based on 'flawed', 'inadequate' and 'tainted' assumptions.

Alba councillor Chris McEleny said earlier this month that he was 'actively considering' bringing a vote of no confidence in the council's ruling Labour-led administration - and described the Clune Park situation as a 'scandal'.

Council leader leader Stephen McCabe hit back saying he suspected Mr McEleny was 'desperately seeking to remain politically relevant following his failure to get elected to the Scottish Parliament' under the Alba banner.