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£230,881 fuel bill for empty fire control centre
ALMOST a quarter of a million pounds has been spent heating and lighting Yorkshire's new regional control centre - despite it standing empty.
New figures seen by The Star reveal 230,881 has been spent on gas and electricity bills at the building proposed as a replacement for Sheffield's fire control centre.
Taxpayers have also forked out 1.67 million in rent, maintenance, landscaping, cleaning and 24-hour security costs for the empty control room.
Ministers today faced renewed criticism over the controversial project that will lead to the closure of Sheffield's fire control room.
MPs on an influential Commons select committee said performance on key fire service projects including the setting up of regional control rooms
gives "cause for concern".
The current Sheffield fire control room is closing, and all emergency calls to the service in the Yorkshire region will be dealt with at a centre in Paragon Business Village, Wakefield.
The new centre was built in 2008 but, amid a catalogue of technical problems, the switchover of emergency calls from the South Yorkshire brigade will not take place until July 2012.
It is currently standing virtually empty at a cost of 152,662.67 a month, or 5,000 each day.
The communities and local government select committee has highlighted how the spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, believes the timetable to deliver all the regional centres by 2012 "remains challenging".
The MPs' report also concluded "the weaknesses which have beset that programme persist".
And in a scathing wider criticism of the performance of the Department for Communities and Local Government, the MPs said it is clear "project management skills are lacking in the department and this is having a serious effect on the achievement of the department's objectives".
Permanent Secretary Peter Housden said part of the problem was due to staff not having the necessary skills and added there had also been trouble with the technology.
A DCLG spokesman said: "The Fire Control project is part of Communities and Local Government's 1 billion investment programme in the Fire and Rescue Services.
"We are firmly committed to the project and the benefits it will provide, including a better service to the public, increased safety for frontline firefighters, and better technology for control room operators."
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Weather for Sheffield
Friday 25 May 2012
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Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
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