A three-man panel led by a top QC is to decide on a $156 million compensation claim by a developer dumped from the redevelopment of Hamilton Harbour.

Geoffrey Bell QC will chair the group, backed up by fellow QC George Bartlett and Norman Rose, Government House said last night.

Michael MacLean’s Allied Development Partners was stripped of the 263-year lease awarded by the Corporation of Hamilton.

Mr MacLean and business partner Alex DeCouto were awarded the lease in 2012 — but the new OBA administration stepped in and passed legislation to overturn the deal only months after taking power at the end of that year.

Mr MacLean last month criticised the length of time it had taken to agree a settlement.

He complained that negotiations with Government over compensation had stalemated at the start of May — and that an arbitration panel had still not been convened weeks later.

The lease was singled out by then-Ombudsman Arlene Brock in a special report into City Hall in December last year.

The report listed examples of “maladministration” — and said the tendering process for the waterfront redevelopment was heavily flawed.

Ms Brock’s report led to Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy taking control of the Corporation of Hamilton’s “financial administration and treasury functions” until financial instructions were put in place.