John Prescott:?Don't blame me for Wolverhampton fire control centre fiasco
EXCLUSIVE - Former deputy prime minister John Prescott, who signed off a disastrous £10 million fire control centre in Wolverhampton, has blamed 'bloody civil servants' for the debacle.
The centre was supposed to cover Staffordshire, Shropshire and the West Midlands, but has never even opened and is costing taxpayers millions each year in running costs.
Plans to use it have now been scrapped completely and Lord Prescott said he still wanted to know how the project went so over budget.
As Tony Blair's deputy from 1997 to 2007, he was in charge of the scheme for nine regional centres to replace 46 smaller bases. It was meant to cost £120m but ended up costing £635m before being scrapped in 2010.
Taxpayers are footing a £48m rental bill over the life of a 25-year lease for the building at Wolverhampton Business Park. It was meant to bring the control rooms of the West Midlands, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and Hereford and Worcester services under one roof.
Lord Prescott today laid the blame at the door of civil servants including Sir Peter Housden, who was permanent secretary at the Department for Communities and Local Government when the project started. Sir Peter is now Permanent Secretary of the Scottish Government.
Lord Prescott said: "When I left office that was a programme that was going to cost £100m. They confirmed it was on budget. Twelve months after I left it went up to this enormous figure.
"The bloody civil servant in charge of it who is now in Scotland, they didn't call him before the committee because he's no longer in charge of it. Why did it go to that amount?" He added: "The regional concept was right. It was recommended to me after a strike. We had a bit of a ding dong."
Fiona Donald, spokesman for the Scottish Government replied on behalf of Sir Peter and said: "As already made clear to Parliament, the Permanent Secretary joined the department responsible for fire control in late October 2005 by which time all the key decisions on the design and procurement of the project had been taken. Ministers were fully appraised of progress and expenditure throughout."
Daniel Wainwright
No punches pulled – Full interview in today's Express & Star