KENT County Council has been landed with a legal bill for £300,000 in its bid to recover some of the £7million it had spent when it scrapped plans for the first Turner Centre, the multi-million arts gallery in Margate.

A long-running wrangle involving the council and contractors who were involved in the original project has yet to be resolved and could still end up in court.

But the two-year battle for compensation and efforts to reach a settlement with the architects and their advisers have to date cost the county council £300,000 in lawyers’ fees and legal advice - the equivalent of £1,250 per month.

Council chiefs insist they are confident of eventually recouping the money spent on legal fees but accept that if the dispute ends up in court, it will be for a judge to determine any claim for costs.

Cllr Mike Hill (Con) said: "The advice from our legal experts means that we have a high degree of optimism. We have had a very strong indication that our case is good and on that basis believe there will be a successful outcome. We have a significant claim [for compensation] which is way above any mediation that is on-going."

He added: "Of course it is frustrating but it is not unexpected. Legal processes can be enormously time-consuming. But we have incurred a significant loss which we believe is no fault of our own."

The county council scrapped what was dubbed 'Turner Mark One’ in February 2006 after the estimated costs for building the gallery in the sea off Margate pier spiralled to nearly £40million.

It later published a report that catalogued a series of wrangles and problems over the design and revealed that there were fears the gallery could be swept away by a freak wave.

Work on a a second version of the gallery, which is being built on land and will cost £17.4million, is expected to get underway later this year.