Prescott’s fire centre still empty

A written statement by Fire Minister Brandon Lewis yesterday revealed a deal has still not been struck with the public sector body which the Government is desperately hoping will take over the running of the fire control centre at Paragon Business Village in Wakefield, which has stood empty since 2007 at a cost to taxpayers £5,000 per day.

Yorkshire’s is one of four regional fire centres across the country for which a use has still not been found – despite the entire project having been cancelled when the coalition came to power in 2010. Mr Lewis said he was hopeful negotiations will soon be concluded for the Wakefield centre, to cover at least some of the ongoing cost to the taxpayer.

“Five of the nine centres have now been sub-let or transferred,” Mr Lewis said. “Heads of terms are being negotiated with public sector organisations for the Wakefield and Taunton regional control centres.

“The two remaining centres – in Castle Donington and Cambridge – are being actively marketed, and interest has been shown in both.”

The regional fire control project is regarded as one of the most disastrous and profligate schemes of the New Labour years, costing around £500m before finally being aborted.

Launched by former Hull MP and then-Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in 2004, the project involved replacing the nation’s individual fire service control rooms with a network of regional centres, sited in purpose-built premises across the country.

The new centres were built to astonishingly high specifications, featuring £6,000 coffee machines and £4,000 sofas.

But their computer systems never worked, and after years of delay and overspend the entire project was cancelled in 2010.

“FireControl was a poorly conceived and badly delivered top-down programme of the last administration,” Mr Lewis said yesterday. “It was terminated after running over-budget and behind schedule, to avoid further taxpayers’ money being wasted.”

Disastrously, however, the previous Government locked taxpayers into long-term PFI contracts for all nine buildings, without break clauses, each costing around £5,000 a day.

The Yorkshire Post revealed last summer the Government was in negotiations with an unnamed public sector body to move into the empty Wakefield centre, with officials claiming then that the deal was agreed subject to “legal formalities”.

In a letter to the Commons public account committee (PAC) in July, Sir Bob Kerslake – Whitehall’s most senior civil servant – wrote: “Towards the end of April, we reached in principle agreement with a large public sector organisation for them to occupy the Wakefield Control Centre.

“Subject to completion of the legal formalities of the deal, this will mean only four of the original nine centres will remain unused.”

But almost a year on, the deal has yet to be concluded – with taxpayers a further £1.5m out of pocket in the meantime.

Sir Bob also admitted last year the Government is offering £1m-plus subsidies to anyone willing to move into the centres.

Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who chairs PAC, has described the payments as “bribes”.

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Yorkshire Ambulance Service have both denied they are poised to move in to the Wakefield centre.