A SENIOR judge has raised concern about taxpayers’ money being consumed after two councils became embroiled in a legal row over who should pay for the care of a child.

Lady Justice King said Wakefield City Council bosses seem to have “felt obligated” to “avoid responsibility” for funding the child’s placement in foster care and had become involved in a dispute with Brighton and Hove City Council.

The judge said the amount run up in lawyers’ bills would almost certainly, have covered the cost of the child’s foster care for many months.

Lawyers representing Wakefield had asked Lady Justice King and two other appeal judges to consider the case after a family court judge ruled the West Yorkshire council, not Brighton, was the designated local authority in the child’s case.

Wakefield bosses said Brighton should be the designated local authority.

Appeal judges disagreed and dismissed Wakefield’s appeal after analysing issues at a Court of Appeal hearing in London.

The youngster had gone into council care and was currently with foster carers in Wakefield.

Lady Justice King said: “Such disputes between local authorities consume both time and scarce financial resources, which are better spent on the children at the centre of the argument... The result was that costs were incurred in legal proceedings which would, almost certainly, have covered the cost of (the child’s) foster care for many months.”

The other two appeal judges, Sir Terence Etherton and Mr Justice Lavender, said they agreed.

Appeal judges did not identify the child at the centre of the case in their ruling.