Report exposes flaws with fire-calls plan

THE controversial plan to re-route all of Oldham’s 999 fire calls to Warrington was one of the worst ever cases of project failure, according to a damning report.

The Manchester call centre was set to close with all emergency calls answered in Warrington under government proposals to streamline England’s existing 46 local control rooms into nine centres.

The coalition dumped the plans last year, seven years after it started.

The powerful Commons Public Accounts Committee, which scrutinises public spending, said the failed projects were a “costly white elephant” which had cost the taxpayer almost half a billion pounds.

Committee chairman Margaret Hodge said: “The project was rushed, without proper understanding of costs or risks.

“The contract itself was poorly designed and awarded to a company without relevant experience. The computer system was simply never delivered.

“No-one has been held to account for this project failure, one of the worst we have seen for many years, and the careers of most of the senior staff responsible have carried on as if nothing had gone wrong at all.”

London is the only control centre being used: the other eight still stand empty. The building purchased in Warrington costs £99,792 a month — more than £1.19 million in rent a year — but is unused.