Barrow-in-Furness BC has been told it got off lightly for its part in Britain's worst outbreak of Legionnaire's disease because it is a public body.

In the corporate manslaughter case which this week saw the council's head of design services Gillian Beckingham cleared of causing the death of seven people, Mr Justice Stanley Burnton said he would have fined Barrow more than £1m if it had been a company and the council tax payers didn't have to foot the bill.