Bonanza for running empty Dome

MINISTERS have been accused of using Christmas to 'bury' more bad news - a payment of nearly £500,000 to the boss of the Millennium Dome to run the empty visitor attraction. Dome Minister Lord Falconer released details of the six-figure pay deal in the Commons library on the afternoon Parliament went into recess.

Bob Hewes, chief executive of the New Millennium Experience Company, was paid £440,000 over the past year - double the salary that his predecessor, PY Gerbeau, got when the Dome was open. It is the latest embarrassment over the Dome, which opened two years ago as an icon of New Labour, but now ends the year as an expensive white elephant.

The Tories accused Ministers of a cover-up. 'They have been trying to hide this story like a coin in a Christmas pudding,' said shadow Culture Secretary Tim Yeo.

The extraordinary salary is hidden in the Dome firm's annual report, which reveals how the attraction continues to waste millions of pounds of public money 12 months after it was closed.

More than £1m was put aside to cover thefts, bad debts and legal bills.

Dome chairman David James was paid £292,000 this year - including a £100,000 performance bonus. James had said he was working for nothing.

The salaries of senior executives added up to £815,000 - only slightly lower than in 2000, the year the Dome was operating.

Hewes, 56, joined NMEC last December as finance director on a salary of £300,000 with the short-term task of winding up the company. He was later given the additional title of chief executive. When the sale of the Dome took longer than expected, he was awarded bonuses worth £140,000 as an incentive for him to stay on.

It is not the first time Hewes has hit the headlines over the size of his pay cheque. Four years ago, as finance director of Lloyd's of London, the insurance market which was then in trouble, he was given a bonus of more than £60,000.

Lord Falconer, who works in the same Government department as Jo Moore, the spin doctor who tried to use the New York terror attacks to bury bad news, is one of Tony Blair's closest friends. The former barrister has already been forced to apologise twice for misleading Parliament over the Dome.

Last month he incorrectly told Lords that the Dome had never been insolvent and in September he had to say sorry after giving false information to a Commons committee.

A spokesman for his department denied Ministers had done anything wrong. 'This was not trying to bury bad news. We made it perfectly clear to people that this report was coming out.'

Hewes, who lives in an unprepossessing detached house said to be worth about £200,000 near Brentwood, Essex, declined to discuss his salary.

However, a spokesman for the NMEC defended the £440,000 payment. 'You have to remember that in September 2000, NMEC was just hours away from becoming insolvent,' he said. 'Over the past 12 months, Bob has been working hard to ensure the company can go into solvent liquidation. His focus has been on the financial and legal issues rather than the operational stuff. And we have been able to announce that £25m of Lottery money can be paid back.'

But Yeo said: 'It is extraordinary that anyone could be paid such a huge amount effectively to run an empty Dome. It is scandalous that they have tried to sneak out such vital information by placing it in the library of the House on the afternoon that everyone was packing up to go home for Christmas. Now Labour are using the festive season to bury bad news.'