A man associated with a fringe conspiracy group who took a Melbourne council to court in a bid to force them to hold meetings in front of a public gallery has been ordered to pay the council’s legal bill after the case was dismissed.

Darren Dickson, who represented himself, took Yarra Ranges Council to the Supreme Court over the council’s decision to close its increasingly rowdy public gallery for three months and take meetings online instead and what he claimed was a lack of consultation over a planning design document.

A Yarra Ranges council meeting in Lilydale in February. Credit: Eddie Jim

Supreme Court Justice Melinda Richards on Friday handed down her judgment after a one-day trial last month, dismissing Dickson’s claims.

Yarra Ranges Council – which covers townships in the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne’s outer east – shut its public gallery between April and July this year. The decision followed what it described as months of intimidating and abusive behaviour by people who came to watch meetings, including adherents of fringe conspiracy group My Place Australia.