Secrecy surrounds Domesday

Bidders hoping to take control of the Millennium Dome will today lodge formal offers with the Government, setting out details of their rescue plans for the illfated site.

After the disastrous collapse of deals involving Japanese bank Nomura and the Legacy consortium, the Government is insisting on conducting the latest negotiations in an atmosphere of utmost secrecy.

Dome Minister Lord Falconer has sparked Tory fury by refusing to say how many organisations are involved in the secret negotiations or making public any information about the way a deal may unfold.

Formal offers are being made today and the key question will be: How much are the bidders prepared to pay?

Two previous bids to sell the Dome for around £125million fell through and there are concerns in Whitehall that the price tag may have dropped further.

The muddled attempts to sell off the Dome suffered another setback last week when two key players in one consortium pulled out. The Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor Estates and Sir Stuart Lipton's Stanhope Estates withdrew from the Meridian Delta Ltd consortium, blaming an economic downturn.

Their partners, Quintain Estates - which already owns 14.5 acres next to the Dome site - and Lend Lease, have decided to press ahead with their bid for a theme park based on BBC programmes. Their plan is thought to include using the Dome as a 20,000-seater stadium surrounded by flats and offices.

MDL is said to be putting together a deal where instead of buying the site outright, they would develop parcels of land gradually, leasing many to other developers and splitting the profits 50:50 with the Government's regeneration body English Partnerships.

Officially, the Government is talking about "a small number" of potential buyersbut the only other confirmed bidder is the scientific research charity the Wellcome Trust, which wants to create a complex of laboratories for research into fighting disease as well as an exhibition space at the site.

Challenged about how the Government will weigh up the bids, Planning Minister Sally Keeble has told Westminster colleagues: "We want to get the best deal for the taxpayer. Therefore, any sale of the Dome will be required to provide a worthwhile and sustainable future for the Dome and value for money. We will also want to be assured that bidders' proposals can be successfully delivered."

She confirmed that taxpayers have been hit with costs of nearly £13million since the Dome closed last New Year's Eve - dismantling the site has cost £9.6million and day-to-day running costs, including securityutilities and insurance, have now topped £3.3million - all on top of the £3.5 billion spent building the Jubilee line Tube extension, £185million decontaminating and improving the site and the £628million from public funds used to keep the Dome running as a visitor attraction last year.

But she insisted: "To reveal details of any discussions could compromise the negotiating process and would be against the public interest. It is of course open to an interested party to make their interest known."

It is expected that the next step will see the Government announce a preferred bidder who will then be given time to finalise details of their offer.

Tory shadow Culture Secretary Tim Yeo, who visited the Greenwich site yesterday to highlight his concerns about the secretive bidding process, said: "There is growing public concern about the confusion and secrecy surrounding Labour's attempts to sell the Dome.

"It is utterly unacceptable that the Government has refused to let Parliament or the public hold it to account over the Dome - it is the taxpayer who has to pick up the tab for the Government's incompetence."