§ 3.12 p.m.
§ Lord Lukeasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress they have made with regard to the completion of the Millennium Dome.
§ The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Lord Falconer of Thoroton)My Lords, progress on the Millennium Dome remains on time and on budget. The construction and development phases for the dome are nearing completion and the transition to exhibit fit-out is in full flow. There are now 59 days until opening and the entire team at the New Millennium Experience Company, from the many young acrobats and aerialists training hard for the central show to the people engaged in the fit-out, are working hard to deliver. They are on target for a successful opening on 31st December 1999.
§ Lord LukeMy Lords, I thank the noble and learned Lord for that excellent Answer. Is he aware that, as a result of the high profile that the dome has enjoyed since it was conceived some years ago. expectations of the many people who will want to go to the experience 722 will be high? Are the Government confident that they will be fulfilled?
Furthermore, does the Minister agree that continued doubts about the completion date of a fully functioning Jubilee Line extension, from Green Park to North Greenwich, must inevitably soon affect ticket sales?
§ Lord Falconer of ThorotonMy Lords, as regards what is inside the dome, I agree that people's expectations are high. From my involvement in what will be inside and around the dome, I believe that those expectations will satisfactorily be met.
Secondly, the Jubilee Line extension already runs from central London—namely, from Waterloo—to North Greenwich. I am confident that it will he open, connecting Green Park to Waterloo, thereby connecting Stanmore in the west to Stratford in the east, well before 31st December 1999.
§ Lord MarshMy Lords, will the Minister tell the House what the estimated overspend on the Jubilee Line extension will be?
§ Lord Falconer of ThorotonMy Lords, I do not know the precise figure. I agree that for years there has been a significant overspend; for years before this Government came into power.
§ Viscount CranborneMy Lords, as the Minister said that the dome was running to budget, will he remind the House what the total budget was? In doing so, will he tell us what proportion of the budget will be met by taxpayers' funds and whether that proportion is higher than originally predicted?
§ Lord Falconer of ThorotonMy Lords, the total figure spent on the dome, from building it to running it to the end of 2000, is £758 million. Not one penny of that comes from taxpayers' money. The Millennium Commission has made a £399 million grant from lottery funds and there has not been one penny of overspend in relation to that.
Baroness SharpiesMy Lords, when I and other noble Lords recently visited the dome, the ceiling was extremely dirty. Has that problem been solved?
§ Lord Falconer of ThorotonMy Lords, the ceiling is being cleaned even as we speak.
§ Baroness Miller of Chilthorne DomerMy Lords, does the Minister agree that when people visit the dome they will be surprised to discover that the "Our Town Zone", which reflects local communities, is sponsored by that great homogenising giant. McDonalds?
§ Lord Falconer of ThorotonMy Lords, the "Our Town Zone" is an opportunity for people from every town in this country to come to the dome for a day and tell the story of their town. With two exceptions, every local education authority or library board has 723 subscribed to the idea. They have done so knowing full well that McDonalds has made a contribution to that. I believe that they focused more on people's opportunity to tell the story of where they live rather than on the fact that a commercial concern has been sufficiently enthusiastic about the dome to make a significant contribution to it.
§ Lord HankeyMy Lords, while it is difficult to judge a design that is not complete, will the Minister take note of the criticism of members of the architectural profession who visited the dome only two weeks ago that the co-ordination of the interior design and the thematic pleasure to be achieved from the great variety of internal buildings puts at risk the total pleasure?
§ Lord Falconer of ThorotonMy Lords, I regularly visit the dome, inside and out, and during the past nine months I have seen the inside coming together. I am not sure what is meant by the "thematic whatsit", but visiting now one has the sense of a complete whole coming together and it is both pleasing to look at and incredibly entertaining.
§ Lord TebbitMy Lords, I was a little slow in picking up what the Minister said about the Jubilee Line. Did he say that it would be open to Greenwich or not?
§ Lord Falconer of ThorotonMy Lords, I said that it is already open to Greenwich from Stratford in the east and from Waterloo in the centre of London. I also confirmed that it would be open from Stanmore in the west.
§ Lord EltonMy Lords, in case the Minister regards that with too much confidence, would he be interested to know that when my noble friend Lord Luke and I went, at his kind invitation, for which I thank him, to visit the exhibition last week, we thought that we should save time by coming back to the House by Underground, starting on the Jubilee Line, and had to wait 20 minutes because of a signal failure?
§ Lord Falconer of ThorotonMy Lords, when one opens a new Underground line, as we have done, it is inevitable that there will be teething troubles. I am sure that they will be over before 31st December 1999.