Lights are on – but no-one's home at fire base
The scrapped £10 million fire control centre in the West Midlands faced a fresh crisis today after its owners went into receivership.
The scrapped £10 million fire control centre in the West Midlands faced a fresh crisis today after its owners went into receivership.
It is just the latest in a string of problems surrounding the scheme, which continues to drain millions of pounds of taxpayers' money.
The project to combine all the control rooms nationally was scrapped in 2010 and the Wolverhampton building has never been opened.
But the government is still paying rent, electricity and security costs on the site at Wolverhampton Business Park.
Taxpayers are also still paying out more than £1.4 million a year on a 20-year lease for the failed regional base, which was meant to bring West Midlands, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and Hereford and Worcester fire services under one roof.
Plans to close 46 fire control rooms around the country and replace them with nine super centres were abandoned in 2010 after it emerged the total cost nationally was expected to hit £635m – more than five times the original estimate of £120m. The plan was drawn up by the former
Labour Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in 2004 but the National Audit Office later dubbed the project a "comprehensive failure".
Five of the nine centres now have another purpose despite the regional control centre scheme having been scrapped. The Durham one has been taken over by the local fire service while the London one is the only site that did become a regional control centre. Fire services in the north west still have plans to use theirs while the one in the South West is being tipped as a base for the region's ambulance service.
But there are no plans for anyone to take on Wolverhampton's site and West Midlands Fire Servicehas made its own arrangements, with plans to share its existing control room in Birmingham with Staffordshire.
The ongoing crisis comes after the joint control room at Wolverhampton Business Park was beset with so many delays West Midlands Fire Service was forced to spend £20m on a new headquarters in Nechells, Birmingham, in 2009, even though there was still talk of moving to Wolverhampton.
Despite standing empty, there is still round-the-clock security at the Wolverhampton site and the lights in the offices are left on. The building was also equipped with a £6,000 espresso coffee machine but has stood empty for three years.
The property, assets and rights of whatever nature of owner Control Centre General Partner Limited are now in the hands of receivers, Jones Lang LaSalle.
Katherine Howbrook, spokesman for administrators PriceWaterhouseCoopers said: "The administrators are considering the options available and in the meantime, the position of the tenants remains unaffected."
Simon Edwards, spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government, said: "The private company that owns the freehold has gone into receivership, however the Department's tenancy is unaffected and we are in contact with the receiver."
The annual running costs met by DCLG are £1,377,166 in rent, £43,000 in rates, £354,057 in facilities management and security £354,057 and £127,800 on utilities.