A LEGAL wrangle over a three-year-old unpaid bill for dealing with the foot-and-mouth cull has cost Cumbria's tax payers around half-a-million pounds.

Lawyers' fees and administration costs for chasing a £5.2million invoice have cost £400,000 for Cumbria County Council firm Cumbria Waste Management. Extra fees from other council contractors who are still out of pocket has pushed the bill yet higher.

CCC has also missed out on a £1.5 million dividend from CWM, since the authority is the sole shareholder.

Formal proceedings are due to be issued by CWM to sue the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for the money after negotiations broke down.

CWM wants £4.5 million while Lakeland Waste Management a company in which it has a 50 per cent stake - is seeking £1.7 million. Cumbria Contract Services, which is also owned by CCC, is owed a further £1.85 million and the council is also set to sue to recoup that sum.

CWM was involved in burying 42,000 tonnes of carcasses equivalent to around 400,000 animals in trenches dug into rotting waste at the Hespin Wood landfill site in north Cumbria.

Mike Bareham, CWM managing director, said a senior Defra spokesman conceded during the crisis that the Government would have been "stuffed" had it not been for the work of the company.

"We dropped everything to help in 2001, put ourselves personally at risk. Then you end up with this kind of treatment. It's dishonourable and cynical."

In CWM's case, Defra is arguing over the interpretation of the contract it agreed for disposing of carcasses.

A Defra spokesman said the department was pursuing cases where it believed it was overcharged and was investigating "irregularities" in contractors' claims.