also "put them through hell" might well be an overstatement too - according to the HC judgemet, the council covered and continued to cover the shortfall, so it seems (on the surface anyway) that they are the ones who hve persued this, even though they didnt have to.
I sound like i am support the cuts here, and im not, and i agree the legal process has taken ages, but they could have stopped it whenever they wanted and not been out of pocket