Janine Rankin of the Manawatu Standard requested a copy of the Palmerston North City Council’s legal advice concerning parking tickets. After investigating I formed the opinion that it was necessary to withhold the legal advice under section 7(2)(g) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) in order to “maintain legal professional privilege ”. However, I considered that this interest was outweighed by the public interest in disclosure to the extent that Council should release a summary of the advice, along with a public statement setting out certain matters. Given that the Council has agreed to release an appropriate summary and public statement it is not necessary for me to make any recommendations in this case.
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