Find use for £10m fire base says Labour
Shadow cabinet minister Hilary Benn has called on the Government to find a use for a failed £10 million fire control centre in the West Midlands.
Shadow cabinet minister Hilary Benn has called on the Government to find a use for a failed £10 million fire control centre in the West Midlands.
Taxpayers are still paying more than £1.4m a year on a 20-year lease for the 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 the plan was scrapped in 2010.
Mr Benn is now responsible for Labour policy on local government, including any measures to tackle the failed plan to replace 46 fire control centres with nine of the "super centres".
The scheme, drawn up by former Labour deputy prime minister John Prescott, was scrapped by the coalition government after costs reached £635m – five times the original estimate.
The Wolverhampton building has been empty since 2007 but the lights are on all the time, and it has round-the-clock security.
This week the Express & Star revealed that the company which owns it, Control Centre General Partner Ltd, has gone into receivership.
Mr Benn said: "The best use should be made of it. And why are the lights on all the time?"
But he defended Labour's spending while in office, saying "the economy is not in difficulty because of that".
The Labour MP, shadow communities and local government secretary was in the Black Country to support the party's local elections campaign.
Mr Benn described the recent Budget, with taxes on hot pasties and a cut in income tax for the highest earners, as a "turning point" which has given Labour a clear lead in the opinion polls.
He was visiting the United Kingdom pub in Bloxwich Road North, Willenhall, as Labour look set to win control of Walsall Council if they can make gains on May 3. The party has two seats fewer than the controlling Conservatives. The pub is run by 24-year-old Matt Ward, who is standing for Labour in Short Heath.
Earlier in the day Mr Benn went to meet Sandwell councillors Bob and Barbara Price in Blackheath and then to Wollaston, Stourbridge.