To let - One big white elephant with a Taunton location (From Somerset County Gazette)
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To let - One big white elephant with a Taunton location
1:30pm Wednesday 8th August 2012 in News
By Phil Hill
The centre has never been used
THE Government hopes to off-load Taunton’s never-used regional fire control centre to a private firm.
Labour’s plans for the ‘white elephant’ on Blackbrook Business Park to replace local control rooms across the South-West were scrapped as costs spiralled.
The Coalition attempted unsuccessfully to attract fire and rescue services to occupy the building, one of nine regional centres nationwide, which has landed taxpayers’ with a multi-million pound bill.
Now Baroness Hanham, Govern-ment spokeswoman for Communities and Local Government, has announced the site is being marketed to private companies.
She told Parliament that four premises in other parts of the country had been rented out but the search was on for occupants of the remaining five, including Taunton.
Baroness Hanham said: “They are built to a high specification and have a number of desirable features, including excellent resilience, good security and easy access to major road networks. Buyers of the control rooms will also benefit from the £6,000-a-piece deluxe polished chrome Brasilia espresso machines that were purchased for each of the centres by the last administration.”
She added that steps had been taken to cut the cost of the unused centres, with utility bills reduced by 35%, after it emerged the empty Taunton building had cost £3million in 18 months in rent and other bills.
Baroness Hanham said: “It is 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.”
The Blackbrook building has about 20 years left on its lease, which must be paid for from taxpayers’ money unless a new occupant can be found from the private sector.
Have you got an idea for the building? Let us know below.
Comments(24)
blackmasquerade
says...
4:59pm Wed 8 Aug 12
Mi_Coc
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7:55pm Wed 8 Aug 12
blackmasquerade wrote:Yes if your public sector anything is justifiable. £6k is that all I expect it can with a 5 year maintenance and replacement package and someone got 2k of pal. Greeting local government is full of people on the fiddle. They are providing a public service. They issue 6k purchase orders for a drinks machine and then haggle of £70 bill for pest control visit. That's the way it goes. Some of the biggest crooks in this country work in the public sector, Colin port to name but one.
Agreed a complete waste of money from the start but what incenses me more than the fact this has stood empty since Day 1 & has continued to be a burden on the tax payer, is what possible justification was there in spending £6k on espresso machines?
stanchester
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8:12pm Wed 8 Aug 12
blackmasquerade
says...
9:54pm Wed 8 Aug 12
FreeSpeech?
says...
2:20am Thu 9 Aug 12
blackmasquerade wrote:No just the ones at the top.........
No doubt there's some truth in what you say there Mi_Coc but not all public sector are the same thankfully
cyberblaze
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6:48am Thu 9 Aug 12
stanchester
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7:01am Thu 9 Aug 12
St. Austell
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10:30am Thu 9 Aug 12
Mi_Coc wrote:Sorry Mi_Coc but with most of the electorate having short term memory and a present administration that fails to impress by virtue of infighting coupled with the economic downturn you should brace yourself for the return of Labour at the next general election followed by the borrow, spend as if there is no tomorrow and devalue policies advocated by Balls and Co.
I hope people remember this before voting labour again. 13 years of madness leads to 20 years of hard time for most people in this country.
Don't know why devon and somerset fire rescue dont relocate to the building its probably a case of the have had their funding cut and now the government is trying to sell them an expensive lease.
FreeSpeech?
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11:35am Thu 9 Aug 12
hotelier
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6:17pm Fri 10 Aug 12
Dr Dave
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7:28pm Fri 10 Aug 12
stanchester
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8:20pm Fri 10 Aug 12
Guy Smiley
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10:49pm Fri 10 Aug 12
madcow
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6:36pm Sat 11 Aug 12
stanchester
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1:24pm Sun 12 Aug 12
*Flick*
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11:25am Mon 13 Aug 12
FreeSpeech? wrote:I would say that is actually speculation.... The Coalition has been much worse than Labour ever was...
He should be called Ed B******s as he comes out with alot of it along with his nasally challenged boss who looks as though he's come out of a Wallace and Grommit film, if Labour get in again were all done for and thats a fact not speculation.
Mi_Coc
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4:05pm Mon 13 Aug 12
*Flick* wrote:Yea in what way they have capped benefits and public sector spending that was way out of control. My only issue is they have continued large payments to poorer countries.
FreeSpeech? wrote: He should be called Ed B******s as he comes out with alot of it along with his nasally challenged boss who looks as though he's come out of a Wallace and Grommit film, if Labour get in again were all done for and thats a fact not speculation.I would say that is actually speculation.... The Coalition has been much worse than Labour ever was...
Labour get in and they will have to repay the unions with more unaffordable renumeration deals.
I dont really like labours moving unemployed people to disability and paying them more money to make the figures look good. There are some tough times ahead at least this government can make tougth decisions. Labour just through good money after bad and we end up paying for hafl the world to live.
stanchester
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9:18pm Mon 13 Aug 12
FreeSpeech?
says...
7:55am Tue 14 Aug 12
stanchester
says...
7:59am Tue 14 Aug 12
*Flick*
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8:58am Tue 14 Aug 12
stanchester wrote:An Idiot? Did I say Labour were 'good'?
flick get your facts right its idiots like you that are blind folded and think labour are good, labour got these fire centres built not the colition they took the debts on. so get your facts right
Politics is merely a case of finding the lesser of two evils. In my opinion Labour are not as bad as the Tories, and LibDem proved what a waste of space they are in forming a coalition with a party it doesn't share a single view with...
I would suggest that before you act like a child and call someone an 'idiot', that you look up the meaning. Your lack of grammar and abusive tone would suggest you to be the idiot, not me.
stanchester
says...
8:24pm Tue 14 Aug 12
*Flick*
says...
9:00am Wed 15 Aug 12
Mi_Coc says...
4:06pm Wed 8 Aug 12
Don't know why devon and somerset fire rescue dont relocate to the building its probably a case of the have had their funding cut and now the government is trying to sell them an expensive lease.