Council officials are counting the cost of losing planning fights with an opera festival organiser.

And they will reveal the amounts - believed to run into tens of thousands of pounds - on Thursday.

In the latest battles, Garsington Opera organiser Leonard Ingrams successfully challenged two South Oxfordshire District Council decisions.

He won an appeal against its decision to refuse him permission to use a barn for short-term lets between opera seasons. Following a public inquiry, a Government planning inspector ruled the council should pay his costs.

Mr Ingrams, who holds the month-long festival at his home, Garsington Manor, every summer, also persuaded Thame magistrates to overturn a decision not to allow him extra seating.

At Thursday's meeting of the full council, Cllr Ann Ducker, the Conservative group leader, will ask policy chairman Cllr Jan Morgan for precise details - how many appeals there have been, how many have been won by the council and how much they have cost.