AN abandoned 999 control centre is costing taxpayers more than £100,000 a month – at a time when 16 Derbyshire fire stations are facing closure due to massive Government budget cuts.
The high-tech building, in Castle Donington, was intended to become the regional control centre for the fire service but the project was scrapped in 2010.
Now the rent for the site stands at £100,849 a month – meaning the scheme has cost taxpayers about £7,664,524 since it was completed in 2007, not including maintenance.
The revelation comes at a time when Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service is facing a 40% budget cut over the next four years, requiring it to save £4.4 million by 2017.
As a result, Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Authority has proposed axing 16 fire stations – including three in Derby.
Last night, Derbyshire Fire Brigades Union said that the cash to cover the control centre's rent came from a different pot of Government money and did not have an impact on the budget set for the county's fire service.
But Marc Redford, chairman of the union, said the control centre scheme had been criticised as a white elephant from the start.
He said: "The centre was built using a private finance initiative, like many projects at that time.
"We warned that the taxpayer would end up footing the bill for a scheme that would take years to pay for.
"The money is not coming out of fire service money directly but the taxpayer is still having to find it after the centre was taken over by the Government."
In Derby, fire stations at Kingsway, Nottingham Road and Ascot Drive all face closure and the service wants to create a single new station to serve the whole city.
A public consultation on the plans runs until December 23 but residents have already mounted campaigns against the closures in several areas, including Derby, Belper and Melbourne.
Paul Bayliss, vice-chairman of the Derbyshire Fire Authority, said that, even without the control centre's rent bill, cuts to the service were still needed.
He said: "Anyone who thinks that £100,000 a month will offset the £4.4 million the fire service needs to save is clutching at straws. The fire service is the one area where calls are down, unlike the ambulance service or demands on council services."
The Castle Donington control centre, at Willow Farm Business Park, was one of nine nationally and was meant to serve the fire services of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire. The Government has it on a 25-year lease deal.
The nationwide project was launched by Labour but then cancelled by the Coalition Government after long delays and spiralling costs.
The building is currently owned by the Control Centre Limited Partnership – with its registered office at 26 New Street, St Helier, Jersey.
Jonathan Isaby, political director of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "Across the country the debacle surrounding the creation of regional fire control centres wasted hundreds of millions of pounds in taxpayers' money and left us with nothing to show for it except empty buildings and hollow excuses."
