Former deputy prime minister John Prescott did not, it is fair to say, endear himself to many people in the West Country during his years in Government, not least because of his seemingly class-based support for the controversial Hunting Act.

But it was his almost fanatical backing for regional government and his ultimately fruitless attempts to foist regional assemblies on the nation that is now doing the most damage.

As the Western Daily Press has reported, one of the supporting planks of that drive to create a regional structure in England – the regional fire control centre in Taunton – still hasn't stopped costing us all money and isn't likely to until 2027 when the lease on the mothballed building that nobody wants finally expires.

Between now and then ordinary taxpayers will be contributing to an eye-watering bill totalling £13 million, part of an overall national cost of £230 million for an ill-fated project that in some way, as St Austell Lib Dem MP Stephen Gilbert bluntly suggested, "perfectly sums up 13 years of Labour Government."

His assessment is too harsh. Understandably, he skirts Labour's successes to concentrate on their failures, and the regional fire control project was certainly one of them. Born from a confident time, when there were ample public funds available to support such thinking, the initiatives now look way out of kilter in this austere age.

And now, the only faint hope on the horizon is that the building will find a use as home to the Great Western Ambulance Service and the South Western Ambulance Service trusts. From next October the two trusts, which together cover most of the greater South West region, propose the creation of a partnership to cut waste and duplication of effort. They have said it was "not impossible" that they could operate from the mothballed fire control centre – hardly a ringing endorsement but a hope, nonetheless, that this hugely costly white elephant will at last be put to good use. Mr Prescott has, we suspect, long since stopped giving this money-swallowing black hole, that his policies inspired, much consideration. Now Lord Prescott, he has gone on to greater things, albeit in opposition rather than in power.

Meanwhile, the hard-pressed council tax payers of the West Country are still paying through the nose for his ill-starred venture, with precious little chance of ever getting anything meaningful for their money.