A council official was charged with manslaughter yesterday in connection with an outbreak of legionnaires' disease which claimed seven lives in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in 2002.

Gillian Beckingham, 45, a design services manager for Barrow borough council, was also charged with breaching health and safety regulations.

Summonses were served on the council in connection with the seven manslaughter charges and the health and safety offence.

At the time investigators believed the outbreak was caused by an air conditioning unit at the council's Forum 28 centre, opposite Barrow town hall. The disease is spread by tiny water droplets.

The outbreak was one of the worst known in Britain, infecting 140 other people.

"A criminal investigation has been under way since the legionnaires' outbreak," a spokesman for the Cumbrian police said. "These charges are the culmination of that investigation.

"A decision was made to go ahead with the charges following discussions with the Health and Safety Executive and the Crown Prosecution Service."

A spokesman for Barrow council said officers had learned of the charges yesterday. "We are seeking legal advice and we do not feel it appropriate to comment further at this time," he added.

Ms Beckingham is due to appear at Furness magistrates court on February 24. The council will be in court at the same hearing. Those who died in the outbreak, all from Barrow, were: June Miles, 56; Richard Macaulay, 88; Georgina Somerville, 54; Harriet Low, 74; Wendy Millburn, 56; Elizabeth Dixon, 80; and Christine Merewood, 55.

It is not the first time manslaughter charges have been brought after an outbreak of legionnaires' disease.

A Somerset company, IMCO Plastics Ltd, and its managing director, Michael Lewis, were charged with the offence after three people died of the disease in 1998.

The cause of the outbreak was traced to the factory's cooling towers.

Rita Spencer, 68, Michael Carroll, 72, and Virginia Wall, 76, all contracted the disease after visiting a garden centre adjacent to the IMCO factory.

The manslaughter charges were stayed last year after Mr Lewis was judged unfit to stand trial. The company was fined £70,000 in November after pleading guilty to two counts of breaching health and safety legislation by failing to maintain the water cooling system at the factory.

Legionnaires' disease is fatal in between 10% and 15% of cases, although younger people usually make a full recovery.

It can be spread through air conditioning units, which is why outbreaks often occur during summer months.

It took its name from the first identified outbreak in 1976 at a Philadelphia hotel where the American Legion organisation was holding a meeting.

In October 1998 the bacterium was found in part of the water supply at Buckingham Palace after routine tests were made.