Dome 'costing £189,000 a month'

The Dome has been mired in controversy almost from the outset

The Millennium Dome site cost taxpayers around £189,000 a month in the six months to September, it has emerged.

The dome failed to attract anything like the predicted number of visitors when it was open and is now due to be turned into an entertainments complex.

Minister Lord Rooker said the costs could fall to around £60,000 once work starts next year on the main arena.

Revealing the costs in a Lords written reply he said the £189,000 included security, maintenance and management.

English Partnerships, the quango which runs the site, will continue to incur costs until developers Anschutz Entertainment Group complete the construction of the area, due to open in 2007.

Development of the first new homes in the Greenwich peninsula would start in 2006, the development minister added.