Dome chiefs face fresh fire

MPs will ask if the Dome was trading while insolvent

Cabinet Office Minister Lord Falconer has faced yet more calls for his resignation over the running of the Millennium Dome.

Conservative leader William Hague called for the minister to stand down in a heated exchange with Tony Blair during prime minister's question time on Wednesday.

He accused Mr Blair of "government by clique" and said Lord Falconer, a former flatmate of the prime minister, was being kept in his post because he was proving a convenient "human shield" for Mr Blair.

Earlier, the running of the Millennium Dome had come under the scrutiny of a Commons committee, which grilled senior officials responsible for the project over how it all went wrong.

"Political dream"

Dome boss David James, told the committee that the financial side of the new millennium experience company (NMEC) which runs the project, lacked quantity not quality on its financial side.

He insisted that the Dome was the means of fulfilling a "political dream" and had a "risk element" which would not have applied if it had been a stock exchange company.

He said: "The millennium commission has had to act as a quasi-banker to a company that is not quite a quango and not quite a plc."

Mr James also suggested that the choice of Pierre-Yves Gerbeau as NMEC chief executive earlier this year was "inspired" but he regretted that such an appointment had not happened earlier.

And he denied suggestions that the NMEC board had been "cavalier", adding that board members had showed extreme concern at the growing financial difficulties of the project.

Damning report

The hearing came hard on the heels of the publication of a damning report by the National Audit Office into the running of the attraction in Greenwich, south east London.

PY Gerbeau: "people are ready to look at this as a very serious business for the long-term"

Among the criticisms heaped on the Dome by the government's spending watchdog were that it was an inherently risky project, mismanaged and financially weak before it even opened.

The report said the complex organisational structure between ministers, the Millennium Commission and the New Millennium Experience Company (NMEC), which runs the Dome, created a situation where "all the parties are not always in agreement as to where in practice the burden of influence and authority has lain".

The inquiry also criticised the management for having no contingency plan if the greatly overestimated visitor number targets were not met.

Dome for sale

Mr Gerbeau has shrugged off suggestions that the government is struggling to find a buyer for the Dome after the end of the year.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It should be bought and, I'm telling you, if it is not bought I am going to buy it myself."

He said he received phone calls every day from "very serious business people" interested in acting as backers.

Ministers are presently considering a £125m bid from consortium Legacy, who plan to turn the site into a hi-tech business park.

The Dome Europe consortium, backed by Japanese finance group Nomura, had been set to turn the Dome into a giant theme park but pulled out in September.

The troubled attraction has so far cost £628m of lottery money - £229m more than originally forecast - having been bailed out four times with emergency grants from the Millennium Commission.