A CENTRAL control room for North west fire services – which was this week labelled a waste of money – is set to benefit from nearly £37m of government funding.

Plans for the Warrington-based HQ, which would bring fire control for Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria under one roof, were shelved last year because of problems with a computer system.

But Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service have forged on with a “Plan B” to move services into the mothballed site on Lingley Mere Business Park, Great Sankey, and close the current control room in Kirkdale.

The state-of-the-art building is costing £100,000 a month to keep ticking over, despite never having been used, and just days ago it was slated by the cross-party Public Accounts Committee, along with seven other centres, which chairwoman Margaret Hodge described as “empty and costly white elephants”.

According to a report to go before the Fire Authority next week, fire officers have persuaded central government to cough up £36.7m to fund a local version of the scrapped national project and pay for the building until they expect it to “go live” in 2014.

From that point, the Department for Communities and Local Government will also pay 66% of the rent for the duration of the lease.

Merseyside is set to make £400,000 cost savings in the first operational year, compared to the current system.

Merseyside Fire Authority Chairman Cllr Tony Newman said: “The building is there and just standing around.

“The Government is going to pay a hell of a lot of rent, as well as supply the IT, and we will take it over. That is the plan.