@ Mr. Mustard, If you are going to pay up if rejected by the council then it was futile to come on here at all (other readers please note).
A tad hard IMO.
OPs come here to have their cases examined by us, not necessarily because they think they have solid cases. Just as we cannot guarantee outcomes - you referenced in a previous post that even adjudicators seem able to adopt contrary positions based upon essentially the same facts- so the ultimate decision in each case as to whether to pay must be with OPs. I would not like to feel that OPs felt obligated to see matters through to tribunal simply because we had spent time considering their cases.