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The empty fire control centre built to handle emergency calls from Cornwall to Gloucester could cost us £32million.

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Robert Oxley from the Taxpayers Alliance says it beggars belief: “Everyone is feeling the pinch right now and everyone is having to tighten their belts, and so they’ll be really angry to find out, not only that there’s this incredible waste of millions of pounds, no one has been held to account for this collossal waste of money.

“Civil servants haven’t resigned, consultants who received hefty sums to take part in this project, they haven’t felt any consequences, and neither have the ministers at the time. Taxpayers will rightly be angry that so much of their money continues to be wasted, and yet who has been held to account for this incredible waste?”

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John O’Connell, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers were told that subsidies like this were on their way out, but unbelievably the cost has increased.

“Generous subsidies like these are not the everyday reality for ordinary families under pressure and they shouldn’t be for politicians.”

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The TaxPayers’ Alliance claimed “taxpayers will be alarmed” by the figures.

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Jonathan Isaby, political director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be alarmed that overtime payments to North Wales Police increased by nearly 40% in one year and that some police officers in Wales are getting more in overtime alone than the wage that many people earn in a year.

“While police overtime can be necessary to cope with major events and unexpected staff shortages, it is expensive and the management in police forces should be working to minimise it.

“Big increases in the overtime bill suggest that serious questions need to be asked about how resources are being allocated.”

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The calls come a year after VAT went up from 17.5% to 20%, a move condemned by the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

Campaigns manager Robert Oxley said: “Increasing VAT to 20% has hit the poorest hardest and left all taxpayers with less money in their wallets. With belts being tightened in face of economic uncertainty the rise has helped push up prices even further thanks to high inflation, meanwhile economic growth has stalled.

“The Chancellor’s new year’s resolution should be to give ordinary taxpayers a break and decrease the towering tax burden that everyone is faced with. The deficit needs paying off but increased taxes aren’t the way to do it.”

A spokesman for campaign group the Taxpayers’ Alliance said: “It’s a sad state of affairs that, at a time when many councils are trying to find ways to make savings, they are under pressure to spend money from developers by a certain deadline.”

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The TaxPayers’ Alliance said council staff logging on to Facebook was a waste of public money.

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Lee Canning, of The TaxPayers’ Alliance in Wales, said it appeared that public money was being wasted.

“It goes without saying that from the point of view of tax payers and The TaxPayers’ Alliance, especially when council workers are so eager to go on strike, actions such as logging on to Facebook or looking for holidays might show there’s not enough for some of them to do,” he said.

“Those employees need to be asking themselves some serious questions about what they’re doing in their work time.”

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