THE Government has been accused of dragging its feet over plans to transform a defunct control centre into Durham’s new fire brigade HQ.

Negotiations between Whitehall and the fire authority have so far failed to reach a deal, despite taxpayers having to fork out £93,033 in rent every month for an empty building.

Now chairman of the Durham and Darlington Combined Fire Authority, Labour councillor Gordon Tennant, has launched a stinging attack on officials.

He said: “I am annoyed and frustrated. This has gone on long enough. We have things to do in Durham to improve facilities. We want a new headquarters and this building would be perfect.”

But the Government rebuffed the allegations, claiming there had been regular contact with the authority with meetings, e-mails and telephone calls.

Last June, The Journal revealed details of a damning National Audit Office report which labelled the fire control centres a “comprehensive failure”.

The previous Labour government’s vision was to replace 46 fire and rescue centres in England with nine state-of-the-art regional sites.

But the project was scrapped by the coalition in 2010 after a series of expensive delays.

Since then the Government has been trying to offload the purpose-built centres, which could eventually cost taxpayers more than £430m in rent because of long leases. Government officials are currently in talks with seven fire authorities, including Durham.

Coun Tennant added: “It is a white elephant at the moment, the Government has spent millions on the place just to stand empty.”

The negotiations have been described as “commercially sensitive” but the fire authority chairman warned: “We are not prepared to take on a big rent for the building which will have to be paid for by taxpayers. I think the Government is dragging its feet.”