The original Snohetta design for the Turner Centre

by political editor Paul Francis

A long-running legal wrangle over the first version of Thanet's Turner Centre has been delayed.

A High Court hearing originally scheduled to take place last month to settle a dispute between Kent County Council and original architects Snohetta has now been put back until November.

KCC is trying to recover some of the £6million lost after scrapping the first version of the art gallery - which was to have been built partly in the sea at Margate.

Negotiations aimed at reaching a settlement are continuing but if no agreement can be agreed between KCC and Snohetta, the court will be asked to rule on liability.

The county council revealed last year it had spent £644,267 on legal advice in pursuit of its claim for a share of the £6million.

Cllr Mike Hill (Con), KCC's cabinet member for communities, said the delay gave the council more time to see if it could agree a deal to avoid a potentially costly court case.

He said: "There has been a delay for very complex legal reasons but that does give us an opportunity for getting this settled before then and we are hopeful of reaching one."

Read our political editor's blog on the Turner tussle>>>

The council says it is confident of recouping a large part of the £6million after scrapping the original scheme in 2006 after costs spiralled to close to £50million.

Snohetta has now claimed against its structural engineers and has also brought the original project's surveyors into the case.

KCC leader Cllr Paul Carter has said the council would spend "whatever it took" to recover the money.

Building work on the new version of the Turner Centre is underway with the gallery scheduled to open in 2011.