Minister labels £10 million fire control centre "clearly unsatisfactory"

The cost of the region's empty £10 million fire control centre has been labelled "clearly unsatisfactory" by a Government minister, as plans to put it on sale before the end of the month were formally announced.

Baroness Hanham, a local government minister, hit out at the former Labour administration for the "botched" project. Ex-deputy prime minister John Prescott was behind the plans to replace 46 fire control rooms with nine regional centres, including one in Wolverhampton.

Baroness Hanham said the building at Wolverhampton Business Park will now be marketed to private buyers for office use, with particular mention of a £6,000 espresso machine paid for by taxpayers.

The building is one of nine centres that were set up by Labour but scrapped by the Coalition in 2010 as costs spiralled out of control.

The building off Stafford Road was intended to bring the control rooms of the West Midlands, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and Hereford and Worcester under one roof.

But it closed before it even opened and is now going to be sold off along with four other centres in Cambridge, Taunton, Wakefield and Castle Donington.

Baroness Hanham said: "It is clearly unsatisfactory that taxpayers have had to foot the bill for this poorly conceived and poorly implemented project from the last administration, and taxpayers will no doubt resent such expensive buildings lying empty because of the botched procurement and handling of FireControl under the last Government.

"However, the Coalition Government has taken firm action to protect the public purse from the botched programme and sought to minimise the cost of these inherited liabilities, in as far as we are able to, given the constraints of the contracts that were signed."

There were hopes today that the Wolverhampton building would be attractive because it is close to the i54 business park. Wolverhampton Business Group chairman Henry Carver said it was in a "prime location".