Leeds council facing £1m lost earnings claim as bitter dispute with Instaplanta deepens

Instaplanta, which is based in south Leeds and offers roadside advertising space on the likes of planters, has been locked in a bitter dispute with the local authority for almost a decade. The firm claims the council has unlawfully used regulatory powers to “exclude” it from the market to protect its own financial interests.

The council, which has set aside around £1.2m of public money to fight the case, denies the claims. A Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has been scheduled for early November to decide the case.

Malcolm Simpson, one of Instaplanta’s two directors, is a former council employee who co-founded the business in 2010. He said he had done “everything possible” to try to resolve the dispute out of court, including meeting with the council leader and chief executive personally.

“I’m exhausted with trying to get this sorted,” Mr Simpson said. “This is the last thing we wanted. We didn’t want to end up here. The council has been a good employer to me when I worked for them in the past. It’s a shame we find ourselves in this position.”

According to legal documents outlining the case, Instaplanta claims the council blocked its plans to install wooden planters in several locations across Leeds on the grounds it would hurt the local authority’s own income from roadside advertising. The firm claims these actions have cost it £1.16m in “lost profits, together with interest”, the documents said.

For its part, the council says Instaplanta’s applications were blocked on valid legal grounds. Earlier this year, a CAT chairman dismissed the local authority’s efforts to have Instaplanta cover its legal costs in advance of the tribunal, partially on the grounds it would “stifle” the company’s legal claim. A spokesperson for the council said: “We are not in a position to comment on this matter as it is the subject of an ongoing legal process.”