Empty Dome bill soars

The costs of maintaining the hulk of the empty Millennium Dome have soared by 15 per cent in only one month, it was revealed today.

The bill to the taxpayer went up from £251,000 in January to £287,000 in February, according to figures released by Dome minister Lord Falconer. The Tories leaped on the figures and accused ministers of pouring money down the drain.

A spokesman said: "Nearly a million pounds have now been poured into the Blair government's rotting flagship so far this year."

The figures are likely to prove a major embarrassment for Lord Falconer as he bids to tie up a deal to lease the site to developers, allowing the government finally to wash its hands of the structure.

The agreement with developer Meridian Delta, which will build a 20,000 seater arena and a sports training academy, is supposed to be concluded this month. It was announced by Lord Falconer in December with a fanfare of publicity and promises that it would attract £4 billion of private investment.

However, it emerged that ministers would see no money from Meridian until the developers started making a profit after an unspecified period.

The Tories claim Lord Falconer has already broken a pledge to conclude the deal with Meridian by 1 May - but a Cabinet Office spokeswoman denied this and said the Government's target had been to dispose of the Dome by the end of this month.

An announcement on the conclusion of the deal could be expected "soon", she said.

Meanwhile, the soaring costs of keeping the structure empty could attract the attention of spending watchdog the National Audit Office, which has already published reports on two of its three separate investigation's into the Dome's finances.

The structure - which Tony Blair reluctantly admitted had been a mistake for the Government to build after a series of fiascos - has now cost a total of more than £800 million in taxpayers' money, Lottery cash and private investment.

The latest figures from Lord Falconer do not include the cost of telephone calls made from the empty structure. The Cabinet Office did not give any details of how much these cost and said they had not been given for what were mysteriously referred to as "billing-related reasons".

A WAGN casualty bureau has been set up. The number is 08457 818919.