Brendan McHugh has made good on his threats to take court action after councillors twice went against the recommendation of their senior planning staff to knock back his plans to open a new kennel and cattery at Dunkeld.

General manager David Sherley said council would vigorously defend the decision made by a majority of councillors, but they must know the reports written by their own staff will play a key role in Mr McHugh’s case.

And that creates the strange situation where council is effectively defending a decision it does not agree with.

So it will be interesting to see just how vigorously council fights this case.

Legal costs for other recent matters have run well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but ratepayers will not be happy if that much is spent defending a decision at odds with council’s own senior staff.

But if much less is spent on this case, then Mr McHugh’s neighbours – who led the fight to have his DA rejected – will ask just how seriously council took the Land and Environment Court action.

And if council does win the case and Mr McHugh’s DA is rejected by the court, then questions will be asked how council staff could twice recommend it be passed.

It’s almost a case of council wins if it loses and loses if it wins. Strange days indeed.