Fresh crisis for £10m fire HQ
EXCLUSIVE - The company that owns a scrapped £10 million fire control centre in the West Midlands has gone into receivership.
EXCLUSIVE - The company that owns a scrapped £10 million fire control centre in the West Midlands has gone into receivership.
The news casts further doubt over whether it will be sold off. Taxpayers are still paying more than £1.4m a year on a 20-year lease for the failed regional fire control centre at Wolverhampton Business Park.
It was meant to bring West Midlands, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and Hereford and Worcester fire services under one roof.
But Jersey-based Control Centre General Partner Limited, which also owns four similar control centres across the country, has called in administrators to handle its assets.
A letter from its lawyers Mourant Ozannes reveals all "property, assets and rights of whatever nature" are now in the hands of receivers, Jones Lang LaSalle.
Despite standing empty, there is round-the-clock security and lights are left on 24 hours a day. Former Labour deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's 2004 plan to create nine national control centres was scrapped in 2010 and five of the nine centres are now used for other purposes.
Gavin Williamson, Conservative MP for South Staffordshire, said: "The fact the company which owned the freehold has gone into receivership may offer a way out of the lease and should be explored."
Daniel Wainwright