Kent County Council has run up legal costs of more than £600,000 in its fight to recover some of the money lost after it scrapped the first version of the Turner Centre.

Figures disclosed by the county council reveal that its legal bill has more than doubled in the space of a year, rising from £300,000 to £644,267.

The council insists it is confident it will eventually recoup a large part of the £6million it is claiming from the architects Snohetta, who were commissioned to come up with the original plan for the Turner Centre in Margate.

Negotiations to reach a settlement have so far failed, and a court hearing is scheduled for June. The original scheme was scrapped in 2006. After a series of setbacks, the estimated costs steadily spiralled to close to £50million and the council pulled the plug.

The bulk of KCC’s huge legal bill has gone to external lawyers, with £243,963 spent since March last year.

A further £44,625 has been paid to consultants engaged by the council to pursue its case and £55,679 has gone on “internal legal costs”.

The costs have increased because the legal wrangle has seen the architects issue counter claims against some companies that it was advised by.

According to information disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, Snohetta has now claimed against its structural engineers and has also brought the original project’s surveyors into the case.

Cllr Mike Hill (Con), KCC’s cabinet member for communities, said: “This has added to the costs because of the extra volume of work.

“As far as we are concerned, our main action is against Snohetta.

“We have an overriding public duty to recover the money that has been lost and the strong advice we have been given is that we have every reason to purse this to the end.”

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