Last updated 12:04, Tuesday, 05 August 2008

AN office block which cost millions of pounds of public money has stood empty for well over a year.

Barrow Borough Council received the keys to Emlyn Hughes House, on the corner of Abbey Road and Holker Street, in May 2007.

The council didn’t have to pay a penny for the £3m premises.

It was built with European and UK regeneration grants to improve that ‘gateway’ to the town centre.

If the council had filled the building when it was finished, it would have clocked up more than £120,000 in rents for the three floors and a mezzanine since the building was completed. But today, the premises remains empty.

And the council is having to fork out big rate bills every month because since April, owners of empty shops, office and other commercial property have to pay full rates.

The Crown Prosecution Service agreed months ago to take the first floor and a basement store room and move in 24 lawyers and administrators who run magistrates and crown court systems for Barrow and Kendal.

But work has not even started on fitting the required telephones and computer cabling.

And Cumbria CPS boss John Pears says it could be November before staff move in.

Another organisation which wanted to go into the building, 3SL, seems to have got fed up of drawn out negotiations.

But neither the firm, which supplies engineering internet software to the NASA space agency in America, or the council would confirm it had pulled out of talks.

A few other enquiries have been made about the premises.

David Joyce, building manager for the council, said: “We are trying to get the Crown Prosecution Service to get on with it.

“Their technical people seem to be asking question after question. We provided them with all the information so they should have enough to get on with it.

“We will just keep pushing them and hopefully they will get in.”

The council said it wanted the CPS to be in by August.

But Mr Pears said the CPS could not move until the formal lease was signed, which is expected any time now.

After that, it will take communications giant BT at least three months before telephone and computer cabling and other infrastructure can be installed.

He said: “We have been given an approximate move date of mid-November.

“Once we get that lease signed, we will move ahead.

“It is a good-quality building that is suitable for us and obviously will be handier for the magistrates court than Furness House where staff are now. So we are looking forward to it.”

Mr Joyce said the building was speculatively-built with a void for an unlet period designed into the plan.

l PART OF APOLLO BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE – SEE PAGE 13