Decision to go to court follows failure of mediation meeting with developers Countryside and Taylor Woodrow.
Sacked Greenwich millennium village designer HTA Architects is suing the developers of the £250m housing scheme for £4m for breach of contract and loss of profit.

The writ, issued in the High Court this week, is the latest twist in a long-running dispute between HTA and joint developer Countryside Properties and Taylor Woodrow Capital Developments.

It follows the failure of a mediation meeting between HTA and the developers last month.

The HTA writ is for £900,000 in unpaid invoices and £3.2m in lost profit from future design work. It was issued by solicitor Hammonds Suddard Edge.

HTA, sacked as executive architect of the scheme in June 1999, originally put in a claim for losses with the developers in March this year.

In the new writ, the practice claims that its role was radically changed by the developers after it was first appointed in 1997.

HTA claims that it was appointed to act as executive architect in charge of the strategic vision of the village but was then instructed to work on a "piecemeal, time-charge basis". This alleged change in HTA's responsibilities amounted to a breach of contract.

The writ says communications broke down between the developer and the design team in the period between March 1998 and June 1999. It says: "No programme was issued; design team members received instructions day to day with no opportunity to plan in advance.

"The way in which the instructions were issued evidenced a confused approach characterised by repeated change in the brief which resulted in the majority of the work being aborted."

The writ cites the Tavistock Institute report on the scheme in March 1999, which claimed that if the situation continued it would be a "prime indicator of impending disaster".

HTA managing director Bernard Hunt said the practice now expected a counterclaim.

But he added: "In the entire time we worked for them and the two years afterwards we have not had a single piece of correspondence to suggest professional negligence. If they counterclaim we will treat it with the contempt it deserves."

Dismissal from the project in 1999 was the culmination of a simmering row. HTA threatened to resign, claiming that its pioneering design concepts had been diluted. The developer reacted by sacking HTA.

In a four-page letter dated 25 June the developer listed four grounds for dismissal, covering production of information, design and practice organisation. An inquiry into the dispute commissioned by deputy prime minister John Prescott cleared the developers.

Taylor Woodrow began construction of the village's £37m second phase last month.

The long-running millennium village saga

July 1997 Prescott launches competition for Greenwich millennium developer

February 1998 Consortium led by Countryside/Taylor Woodrow wins

June 1999 HTA is dismissed and writes an open letter to Sir Stuart Lipton, alleging the project to be “drifting towards failure”

October 1999 Gardiner & Theobald report dismisses HTA’s claims, insisting the consortium’s designs are consistent with the original vision for the millennium village

March 2001 HTA puts in claim for unfair termination of contract against Countryside/Taylor Woodrow joint venture