I was recently asked what I think of local authorities using regulatory powers to increase diminishing revenues in present times of financial austerity. The answer, I suppose, depends on the capacity in which you're asking me!

If I'm acting for a local authority already doing or proposing to do this, I will clearly go in hard for the proposition, subject of course to law, reason and the particular facts and circumstances.

But if I'm simply private me, already paying a solid slab of Council Tax, and being asked to shell out large additional sums of money under the apparent banner of local statutory regulation, you'll forgive me if I see this rather differently.

This chimes somewhat with the recent decision of Mrs Justice Lang in R (Attfield) v. London Borough of Barnet [2013] EWHC 2089 (Admin) (22 July 2013).