A DEAL to convert a mothballed regional control centre costing taxpayers more than £100,000 a month into a fire service headquarters could be reached within weeks.

However, the latest delay to the project will cost another £200,000 or more.

Bosses at Durham Fire Brigade have been in talks with the Government for several months about taking over the empty North-East Fire Control Centre, in Belmont, Durham City.

They believe the facility, which is believed to have cost about £18.3m so far and could eventually cost £46m, could replace its current headquarters, in Framwellgate Moor, as part of a wider buildings shake-up.

John Hewitt, the brigade’s director of corporate resources, said legalities were being discussed and that a deal could be reached by the end of the month.

However, as recently as September, it was hoped a deal could be reached by late October.

The centre has been empty since a multi-million pound scheme to bring together the fire services of County Durham, Teesside, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland was scrapped last year.

Lib Dem councillor Mark Wilkes said the project showed “staggering disregard”

for taxpayers’ money and that it was absolutely essential its huge cost did not fall on the people of County Durham. Mr Hewitt said: “We all want the best use for the facility. We are trying to concentrate on whether there is an opportunity for a local fire and rescue service.

“It is not doing anything sitting there at the moment. It happens to be in Durham and given we are looking for a new, central headquarters facility, we feel it is right to look at it.

“It is absolutely resilient: designed to withstand electrical faults or environmental disaster.

“If we are providing local services, we can have some comfort it is capable of doing that.”

The 35,000sq ft facility cost £12.4m to build and is costing the Department for Communities and Local Government £97,000 a month in rent and £43,000 a month in other fees.

The taxpayer is tied in to a 20-year lease with the Control Centre General Partner, an offshore company based in Jersey owned by City investment bank Evans Randall.

The Fire Brigades’ Union in the North-East has branded the project an extraordinary waste of money. MPs on the Public Accounts Committee said it ended in complete failure and the National Audit Office called it a comprehensive failure.

The Labour Party has blamed contractor mismanagement.

Talks on the future of the Yorkshire control centre, in Wakefield, which had been due to replace North Yorkshire’s Northallerton control room, are thought to be at an earlier stage than for the North-East facility.