Turner Centre court hearing put back
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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.
Monday, July 06 2009
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