More £Billions on BBC Building Developments

[Teddy Bear]

Two articles in The Telegraph today
This one:
BBC staff complain of busy lifts, narrow staircases and 'rock-hard' baked potatoes in new HQ
BBC staff have complained about the revamped £1 billion headquarters, saying the canteen food is 'awful', the stairs too narrow to walk up and that they 'dream' of dining at White City instead.

and this one:
BBC themed village at £1bn development
BBC Television Centre is to be turned into a £1billion themed village where tourists could eat in the Hairy Bikers Restaurant.

So on the same day we read of the poor design and planning of the new broadcasting house, after a cost of $1Billion, and all the staff complaints related to it, the BBC tells us it is planning another £1Billion development.

This is not to mention the £1Billion spent on Salford, as well as the huge additional costs in relocation and ancillary expenses in running it.

The BBC shows daily that it is substandard in its output, not to mention the damage done by its insidious bias. That it commissions a building design that turns out not to be fit for purpose is merely another area that they show their incompetence.

Besides bias, the only thing that are consistently good at is finding ways to award themselves more money and waste the rest at the licence fee payers expense.

Well past time to put this behemoth out to pasture and stop this self serving drain on our society.

[thehighlandrebel]

And they have the gall to perpetually whinge about austerity measures.

[Teddy Bear]

The one thing that that the BBC do very well - overspend on dubious projects

The citadel of profligacy... or how the BBC flushed another £200m of YOUR money down the drain

• New Broadcasting House in London was opened by the Queen yesterday
  
• It was finished four years behind schedule and £55million over budget
  
• Overspend is just one of many made by the Corporation in recent years

By Paul Scott

For BBC bosses, the sumptuous Roux At The Landau restaurant, with its art deco furnishings and grand panelled dining room, has established itself in recent weeks as an unofficial staff canteen.

And the ritzy eatery, run by renowned father and son chefs Albert and Michel Roux Jr — and located just across the street from New Broadcasting House in London — is just the sort of establishment that puts a serious dent in the generous expense accounts of the Corporation’s senior executives.

And it’s all funded, of course, by you, the taxpayer.

After years out in the rather rundown surroundings of White City in West London — where the old Television Centre was situated until it was abandoned in March — the BBC’s faceless bigwigs are delighted to find themselves in the heart of the West End.

But then such day-to-day extravagance is merely a drop in the ocean when it comes to the bloated, publicly funded state broadcaster.

Take the brand spanking new HQ, New Broadcasting House, which was officially opened by the Queen yesterday. The huge steel-and-glass edifice has taken a decade to erect, at a cost of an astonishing £1 billion.

The new home to 6,000 BBC staff, which stands next to the original Thirties Broadcasting House in Portland Place, was finished four years behind schedule and — at a conservative estimate — £55 million over-budget.

This rises to £110 million when you include the cost of extending the lease and upgrading technology at the Bush House offices because New Broadcasting House was not finished on time.

The original architect walked out on the project halfway through, after differences with BBC management, who commissioned a £1.6 million statue in a piazza, and a £900,000 torch-like sculpture on the roof.

The National Audit Office (NAO) criticised the BBC for failing to get value for money during its £2 billion spending spree on its three new HQs around the country. The state finance watchdog said the Corporation showed ‘weak governance’ and accused it of failing to follow good practice.

One of those involved in the planning was the BBC’s ‘creative director’ Alan Yentob, who, the Mail revealed this week, is paid two salaries — one in the region of £150,000 for presenting the Imagine series, on top of the £183,300 a year he already picks up.

Another damning report by the NAO last month criticised it over its decision to move part of its operation, including Radio 5 Live and children’s programmes, to a purpose-built building in Salford, costing a further £1 billion.

The NAO berated BBC chiefs for paying £24 million in over-generous allowances to persuade London-based staff to move north. Throw in the overspend on BBC Scotland’s Pacific Quay headquarters in Glasgow and you are looking at an excess of almost £200 million on building projects.

Meanwhile, a Tory MP is set to raise concerns that the cost of a hopelessly failed project to make the BBC’s huge video archive available digitally may be considerably over the £100 million to which the Corporation has so far admitted.

Indeed, yesterday it emerged that a whistleblower had warned executives in 2010 that the £95 million worth of benefits that the project would generate was ‘hugely optimistic and difficult to deliver’.

This track record of financial mismanagement inspires little confidence in the BBC’s assertion that the New Broadcasting House is a ‘huge logistical and technological achievement’ which will deliver £700 million of savings to the licence fee-payer. The no-expense-spared building, which is said to be able to withstand a bomb, covers half a million square feet, is home to three 24-hour news channels, nine radio networks and 26 foreign language services.

It has its own space-age ‘meeting tower’, built on huge stilts in the lobby, and houses what is trumpeted as the most sophisticated newsroom in Europe, featuring trendy orange production suites.

But despite the money lavished on it, things are already going wrong. Journalists who work in the vast glass and steel, open-plan newsroom — a bunker under the building’s main reception — have unhappily christened it ‘The Pit’.

They complain they feel ‘like pandas in a zoo’ because presenters, such as Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce, sit in front of a glass window that overlooks the desks of banks of journalists. To make matters worse, members of the public can tour the building (for £39 for a family ticket) and often ‘gawp’ at staff.

One senior executive has quit after complaining that his office was too small and its wall so lacking in basic sound-proof protection that he could not hold confidential negotiations with programme makers.

Architecturally, concerns have been expressed that the spiral staircases, a spectacular feature of the newsroom that reaches up 11 floors, are only wide enough to accommodate one person. It is feared it could prove to be a death-trap during a fire.

Likewise, there are said to have been two occasions recently when paramedics, who were called to treat sick staff, were not allowed into the newsroom by security men in case their hi-viz jackets were seen by viewers.

Last month, a news employee, who was suffering a suspected heart attack, was apparently asked if he could walk out of camera-shot to be treated by an ambulance crew. Meanwhile, some staff have been receiving messages on their computer screens telling them how to behave in case they are within camera-shot. For example, they have been told not to yawn and to hide any sandwiches.

Other grumbles include workers being ‘treated like children’ as bosses tell them how to use the specially designated ‘huddle zones’ for meetings and advice on office pot plants.

In ridiculous management gobbledegook, one email warned staff: ‘Plants give a strong sense of ownership of a particular desk or area, when we would like staff to feel much more mobile and flexible across the open-plan floor plates.

‘They have been used to form un-collaborative barriers between teams and individuals. Some people are allergic to certain plants and they also attract insects which we don’t want sharing our workplace.’

Bosses’ attempts to boost staff morale included an invitation to 300 employees to attend a ‘People Conference’ in Berkshire this week.

Attempting to recreate the communal euphoria of Glastonbury Festival (featuring teepees on the lawn), the event’s centrepiece was a talk by motivational speaker Emmanuel Gobillot. The Frenchman’s website homepage includes a quote from the writer Flaubert: ‘I’ve always tried to live in an ivory tower but a tide of s*** is beating at its walls!’

The Corporation has denied claims that the event cost £75,000, but BBC staff described the event as ‘pointless’ and a ‘waste of money’.

With yet more embarrassing revelations from Operation Yewtree (the police inquiry set up after the appalling catalogue of sexual abuse by former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile became clear), the emergence of these problems could not come at a more difficult time for the recently appointed director-general of the Corporation, Lord Hall.

Last week, he announced he was closing down the Digital Media Initiative (DMI), which was supposed to create a state-of-the-art system to transfer old tapes to a new computerised archive, available to staff from their desktop computers.

The only problem was it didn’t work. When Margaret Thatcher died, video editors at the double atrium newsroom at New Broadcasting House were unable to access library footage of her.

Producers had to ferry old-style videotapes back in a fleet of taxis and on the Tube from storage in North-West London.

With costs on the project up to the £100 million mark, Hall announced that it would be ditched to avoid ‘throwing good money after bad’.

The man responsible for running DMI, the BBC’s chief technology officer John Linwood, has been suspended on full pay from his £287,000-a-year job as a review is launched.

To compound the scandal, however, it was revealed this week that a whistleblower had warned BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten a year ago that the disastrous IT project was an accident waiting to happen.

Former senior BBC manager Bill Garrett, who was head of technology at the BBC’s programme-making division until 2010, wrote to Lord Patten in May last year to tell him of his ‘serious concerns’.

Yet Patten simply delegated a minion to write back saying he would not be launching a review into the project.

This week, Tory MP Richard Bacon, who sits on the influential Commons Public Accounts Committee, told me he believes the true cost could be substantially higher than £100 million.

‘My information says that it is a lot more than £100 million,’ said Mr Bacon. ‘The committee may look at this very soon because it is a great deal of money that has been completely squandered.’

Meanwhile, trouble is looming on a third front with allegations of corruption. Byron Myers, a former BBC head of human resources, told bosses of his suspicions that a manager was signing off payments, worth tens of thousands of pounds, to his girlfriend’s company.

But he claims that instead of investigating, Corporation executives launched a cover-up.

Finally, after going public with his claims, he says he was sacked and sent by BBC lawyers a copy of the Computer Misuse Act — for which offenders can be sent to jail.

Mr Myers, who also alleges that one of his bosses wanted to get rid of women in senior roles who worked part-time, is in the middle of fighting an industrial tribunal with his former employers. He told me: ‘Initially, I brought my concerns up internally in 2011 as you are required to do, but it was completely hushed up.

‘As a whistleblower, you are exposing the failure of the management’s risk control within the Corporation, so their inclination is to attack.’

Mr Myers added: ‘There is a culture of secrecy among the management. Every time there’s a scandal, they are forced into disclosures.’

He said it was hypocritical of the BBC management to behave like this when its current affairs teams were constantly highlighting the lack of transparency in other organisations.

The catalogue of scandals facing the BBC ought to give director-general Lord Hall sleepless nights.
But given that he’s an insider who’s spent most of his working life at the BBC, and given the history of profligacy and lack of accountability shown by Aunty’s top management, licence fee-payers will be justified in fearing that the gold-plated BBC gravy train will rumble on unhindered.

[Teddy Bear]

A spokesman for the BBC said: “Television Centre is not empty. There is vital technology and equipment within TVC without which we could not broadcast. The short term cost of unavoidable decommissioning work is more than offset by the savings that moving from this site will deliver. In addition to the profit on the sale of the site, the BBC will save £30m a year on running the site.”

The typical ignorant beeboids will overlook the fact that the BBC spent £1 Billion on the new headquarters, so just how a saving of £30 million per year with their real estate deals is possible is truly beyond me.

BBC accused of paying £12million to rent empty building

The BBC has been accused of paying £6million a year to rent an empty building after relocating to its new £1billion headquarters.

By Steven Swinford

The corporation sold its former headquarters in White City, West London to property developers Stanhope for £200million last year. Staff have moved to the new Broadcasting House in Central London and MediaCity in Salford.

However, the corporation is still spending £6million a year on renting its former headquarters because they contain "vital technology" for broadcasting.

Rob Wilson, a Conservative MP, said: "This looks like another example of bad stewardship of public money by the BBC. This could end up landing the BBC with rental bills running into the millions for years into the future, representing increasingly poor value for licence fee payers."

A spokesman for the BBC said: “Television Centre is not empty. There is vital technology and equipment within TVC without which we could not broadcast. The short term cost of unavoidable decommissioning work is more than offset by the savings that moving from this site will deliver. In addition to the profit on the sale of the site, the BBC will save £30m a year on running the site.”

[Teddy Bear]

Reportedly, Nero fiddled while Rome was burning.
With so many scandals fermenting in the BBC, and after having already spent £55 million OVER budget on their new headquarters, what do they do?

Spend another £500,000 revamping it again because as Danny Cohen calls it:

Danny Cohen, the BBC’s £327,000-a-year director of television, has defended the changes, which he admits were prompted by staff complaints.

In an email to workers, he wrote: ‘Over the next few months, we are planning some design changes on the sixth and seventh floors of New Broadcasting House.

‘We have decided to make these changes in response to strong feedback from television staff that the floors did not feel like creative spaces and lacked character.

Did not feel like creative spaces?
One wonders how humankind has found creativity until now. It's not like the BBC has demonstrated 'creativity' too well in any space they've inhabited, unless one calls lies and deception - creative.

BBC's '£500,000' revamp of £1billion HQ that's only six months old... after staff complained the new building 'lacked character'

• High-spec London HQ only opened in June - £55 million over budget
  
• Corporation will revamp two floors of building after gripes from staff
  
• Critics have branded the decision a 'ludicrous' use of the licence fee
  
• Money will be spent making the environment 'more creative and vibrant'

By Chris Hastings

The BBC is spending up to £500,000 on a major refit of its £1 billion new headquarters because staff have complained their state-of-the art surroundings ‘lack character’.

The high-spec London HQ was only opened in June – four years behind schedule and £55 million over budget.

But the Corporation has already decided to revamp two floors of New Broadcasting House to make them ‘more creative and vibrant’ – following a string of gripes from staff. Critics have branded the move a ‘ludicrous’ use of the licence fee.

Among the more bizarre innovations will be internal road signs based on past and present BBC programmes to help staff find their way around their departments. Dubbed ‘wayfinders’, the signs include Who Do You Think You Arcade, Little Britain’s Passage, EastEnders Common, Goodness Gracious Mead, Have I Got Mews and The Great British Bake Wharf.

The costly interior design revamp will also include new floor coverings, the introduction of ‘a new collaboration project zone’, new meeting areas, ‘break-out furniture’ and revamped dressing room doors.

Danny Cohen, the BBC’s £327,000-a-year director of television, has defended the changes, which he admits were prompted by staff complaints.

In an email to workers, he wrote: ‘Over the next few months, we are planning some design changes on the sixth and seventh floors of New Broadcasting House.

‘We have decided to make these changes in response to strong feedback from television staff that the floors did not feel like creative spaces and lacked character. It was something people felt particularly strongly about when we moved in.’

In his message, Mr Cohen pays tribute to a committee of staff volunteers drawn from both floors who came up with a list of ‘reasonably costed’ improvements.

The sixth floor, currently home to some of the BBC’s most senior staff, including Charlotte Moore, the £244,000-a-year controller of BBC 1, and Janice Hadlow, the £235,000-a-year head of BBC 2, is to be rebranded in line with the theme ‘Welcome to the world of television’.

Seating areas will have existing backdrops replaced with new ones featuring iconic BBC logos and programmes. Other changes for the floor include ‘feature seating’, a ceiling-suspended lighting rig, new fabric wrap panels for a meeting room and a series of ‘magnetic glass boards’.

The seventh floor, home to Ben Stephenson, the £247,000-a-year drama commissioning controller, and Christine Langan, the £176,000-a-year head of BBC Films, will include a streetscape called The Street.

'I think this is ludicrous. It proves the BBC has still got far too much money to spend'
Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley

Its design will include bus-stop-type structures, new soft seating, railings, planters, an EastEnders Albert Square street sign and a pub window that wouldn’t look out of place in the flagship soap.

One design expert who has worked on similar schemes said the work was likely to cost in the region of £500,000. He added: ‘It’s projects like this where the costs really start to rack up.’ But a BBC source claimed the work could be implemented for £100,000.

Both Labour and Tory MPs last night criticised the revamp as unjustifiable during hard economic times. John Whittingdale, Tory chairman of the Commons Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport, said: ‘It seems extraordinary that the BBC can spend money on things like this at a time when it says its services and programme budgets are under threat.’

Margaret Hodge, Labour chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said: ‘None of us get everything right when we move into a new building, but spending money on what sound like questionable improvements is inappropriate when money is tight.’

And Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, said: ‘I think this is ludicrous. It proves the BBC has still got far too much money to spend.’

A BBC spokesman said the changes were cosmetic and that the revamp was confined to communal areas. He said the floors had originally been designed for World Service and news staff who had been relocated elsewhere.

He added: ‘The BBC must ensure it continues to produce fantastic television programmes for licence-fee-payers so some changes are being made to create the most effective working environment possible for staff.’

[Teddy Bear]

The BBC lacks creativity, what should be done about it?
Turns out it's the 18 month old carpets on the 6th and 7th floors that's the problem. They're simply not inspiring enough.
So what type of carpets will inspire the creativity they lack?
Something from Eastenders

Can you imagine if the real goings on at the BBC was really a TV farce? It would be a flop because it would be too exaggerated and far fetched - nobody would believe it. I know they are planning a comedy based on themselves, but I doubt it will go into all the elements that really show how appalling they truly are.
Truth is stranger than fiction.

New carpets at BBC's £1bn HQ... just 18 months after it opened: Corporation bosses demand revamp as current decor is 'not inspiring enough'

• Tens of thousands to be spent on EastEnders-style design on two floors
• Will feature 'Albert Square' hot-desking area, Queen Vic meeting room
• 'Street scape art' with the soap's landmarks to cover the walls

By Simon Cable

With a hefty £1bn price tag, the BBC’s new hi-tech headquarters certainly haven’t compromised on comfort or style.

But just 18 months after opening, Corporation bosses have now demanded a costly EastEnders-themed makeover of their central London offices because they claim they are ‘not inspiring enough’.

Just weeks after announcing the closure of youth station BBC3, bosses are now spending tens of thousands of pounds re-vamping the sixth and seventh floors of New Broadcasting House with a design based around the popular BBC soap.

The new plans, the brainchild of the BBC’s director of television, Danny Cohen, will include an ‘Albert Square’ hot-desking area, with iron railings around it and a Queen Vic-themed meeting room.

The 6th floor is being given a ‘Welcome to TV’ theme and is believed to be centred on the most famous characters from BBC shows.

Carpets are being torn up while ‘street scape art’ featuring well-known landmarks from the BBC soap is also being installed.

A committee put together by Cohen decided that the new themed areas are essential to giving the offices ‘a unique sense of identity’.

BBC worker Emma Saunders, who works in arts and entertainment, has written to Ariel, the BBC’s in-house magazine, to complain about the huge cost of the makeover.

She wrote: ‘Can I ask why some of the carpets have been replaced in NBH only 18 months after we moved into the new building?

‘I think many of us would rather have a modest pay rise than be dazzled by a new garish carpet as we step out of the lift.’

However, bosses at the BBC defended the move, saying the re-vamp was ‘necessary’ after BBC creatives complained that the 6th and 7th floors was ‘not inspiring’.

Claire Dresser, the chief adviser for BBC Television, replied: ‘Following Television’s move to NBH last year, there was strong feedback from staff that the sixth and seventh floors did not feel like creative spaces and lacked character.

‘In response, Danny Cohen asked for volunteers from Television staff to join a committee to come up with plans - at a reasonable cost - to make the spaces more creative and vibrant.

'The changes you are now seeing with TV branding, images and props are the ideas this volunteer group from all levels of Television have devised and agreed to.

‘Once the work is completed in the next month, the sixth floor will have a ‘Welcome to Television’ theme and the seventh floor will have the feel of an outside street scape.

‘The committee also made the decision to change the flooring to give these areas a unique sense of identity and the previous carpet is being re-used elsewhere in the building.

‘The railings around the hot-desking area on the seventh floor will be part of ‘Albert Square’ with the outside of the meeting room branded as the ‘Queen Vic’.

‘We want to make our space feel inspiring and creative - a home for BBC Television that reflects our ambitions as the very best broadcaster and producer in the world.’

New Broadcasting House was officially opened by the Queen in June last year, four years behind schedule and £55 million over budget.

It was earlier this month that BBC bosses announced it was closing youth channel BBC Three from 2015 in a cost-cutting measure.

They said that more than half of the £50million savings will be ploughed back into enhancing BBC1.

[Teddy Bear]

Thinking about the decision in the story above to replace the carpets after only 6 months, I reckon Cohen got a committee together to figure out how to make the BBC more creative. Somebody said 'drugs', and Cohen misheard and thought they said 'the rugs'.

Clearly what they lack in quality and creativity they compensate for by surrounding themselves with physical accoutrements that make themselves believe that they are worth it. Now they've spent £12,000 on a new sofa in their Bristol studio. They reckon the old one was only big enough to seat 2 or 3 people.
You think so?

BBC criticised for buying 'lavish furniture'... after allegedly spending £12,000 on new SOFA amid £250 million austerity drive

• Whistleblower claims £12,000 has been spent on new studio sofa
• Seat was bought for use at the Points West regional newsroom in Bristol
• Tax campaigners say cash should be spend on programming and 'not lavish furniture'
• Comes as BBC looks to find £250million savings by slashing budget

By Julian Robinson

The BBC has allegedly spent £12,000 on a sofa for one of its studios, a whistleblower has claimed.

The corporation reportedly footed the bill for a studio seat at the Points West regional newsroom studio in Bristol.

It comes as the BBC looks to slash its total budget by 20 per cent, saving £250 million.

A spokeswoman for the BBC declined to comment further on the purchase for "commercial and confidentiality reasons" but refused to dismiss it as untrue.

But Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Licence fee payers will be rightly frustrated if the Beeb has shelled out so much for a new sofa.

'Taxpayers want their cash spent on quality programming, not lavish furniture.

'It's crucial that the BBC gets value for money as it's hard-pressed families footing the bill.'

The new sofa is said to be long enough to seat eight people and sits alongside the newsreaders' desk.

The previous sofa - said to seat only between two and three people - is over eight years old and has outlived two previous studio makeovers.

It has now been moved to the lobby area of the BBC building in Bristol's Whiteladies Road.

It is thought the new settee is designed to be long enough so a presenter can sit at one end with the interviewee at the other and enough space in between them for a TV projection.

BBC bosses claim the new furniture is part of a revamp of the Bristol studio - but insiders say no other renovations have been made yet.

A spokesperson said: 'We do not discuss studio equipment and programming costs, but we are always looking to give licence-fee payers the best value for money while ensuring wherever possible money goes into what is seen and delivered on-air.

'The BBC is on course to make £700m of savings annually by 2017.'

When pushed for a denial or confirmation, a spokeswoman added: 'That is the response.

'We are not able to discuss production costs or programming costs for commercial reasons or confidentiality reasons.'

The corporation has come under fire for the apparently extravagant spend at a time when staff are being made redundant right across the state-funded programmer.

Three years ago the BBC announced it was cutting its budgets by 20 per cent - saving an estimated £250 million in the process - and making an estimated 2,000 staff redundant.

The local radio network bore the brunt of the cuts but Bristol also lost out on some programming as a result of the changes.

Meanwhile, the Points West team has also come under fire for sending two reporters to South Africa to cover the extradition of honeymoon murder suspect Shrien Dewani, from Bristol.

Andrew Plant and Jon Kay were sent to Cape Town as part of the BBC-wide coverage.

At the time, the rest of the BBC's South Africa news team were in Pretoria reporting on the Oscar Pistorius trial.

The BBC defended the move by saying such a major story was too much for one reporter to cover for all BBC outputs.

[Teddy Bear]

Hearing that BBC staff are complaining that their new headquarters is making them ill makes me feel like there is some justice in the world.

BBC's new £1bn HQ a 'toxic waste pit that is making staff sick' claims presenter Peter Dobbie after contracting a vomiting bug that left him needing treatment in intensive care

• BBC World News presenter Peter Dobbie hospitalised last month
• Claims he caught norovirus while working in basement studio
• Sent email to BBC staff naming three other presenters infected

By Jo Macfarlane

Newsreaders at the BBC’s flagship £1billion headquarters have complained that the revamped building is a ‘toxic waste pit’ which is making them ill.

Staff at the new Broadcasting House in Central London claim there is a ‘trend of filth, human waste products and a badly built building’.

They have called on bosses to intervene ‘as a matter of urgency’ over the ‘unclean and dangerous’ premises they say are so unhygienic that staff regularly become sick.

The astonishing claims are the latest in a string of gripes from staff working in the high-spec building, completed in June last year following a renovation project which ran £55million over budget and four years behind schedule.

They were made by BBC World News presenter Peter Dobbie in an email sent to Dan Goad, the recently appointed Head of HR for BBC News, and circulated to BBC staff.

In the email, seen by The Mail on Sunday, the presenter says he was hospitalised last month by a norovirus infection he claims he contracted while working in a basement studio known as B3, home to several news channels and programmes.

Norovirus is a vomiting bug which affects thousands of people every year and is known to breed in insanitary conditions.

Mr Dobbie writes: ‘I’ve had “food poisoning” three times now in the past year from B3, as have several of my colleagues.

'There is now obviously a trend down there – a trend of filth, human waste products, and a badly built building.

'Whatever is happening on B3 is vicious, adaptable and life-threatening. Dan, I don’t say this lightly, but what has to happen before the BBC does the right thing by the staff over this, accept there’s a problem because people are getting sick, and deal with it.

'The onus surely is on the BBC to make sure we’re safe, not on us to prove that the building is a toxic waste pit.’

Fitness fanatic Mr Dobbie, who competes in endurance events, says he spent two days in intensive care and more than a week recovering in hospital after the bug attacked his glands.

He says B3 has ‘a track record of being unclean and dangerous’ and names high-profile staff who have also been ill.

They include Nik Gowing and Babita Sharma, also presenters on BBC World News, and financial journalist Sally Bundock.

But he says: ‘There are others, not least all the make-up artists who live down there for ten-hour shifts: headaches, sickness, nosebleeds, nausea and no fresh air.’

B3 is the lowest basement floor, with studios for BBC World News, BBC London, Newsnight and The Andrew Marr Show.

Two months ago it emerged that the BBC was spending tens of thousands of pounds renovating parts of the building.

A BBC spokesperson said: ‘We take this issue very seriously and conducted a full investigation as soon as we were made aware of these concerns. We have found no evidence of a link to the studios. We are glad Peter is making a good recovery.’

[charmbrights]

Well, at least the BBC has matched location to quality in its choice of studios! "B3 is the lowest basement floor, with studios for ... Newsnight and The Andrew Marr Show."

[Teddy Bear]

There's something satisfying knowing that BBC employees are having problems in their fancy new building, despite the expenditure laid out for their self-serving extravagance by the licence fee paying public.

BBC workers attack new £1billion Broadcasting House as 'not fit for purpose after being left with no internet or telephone connections

• BBC staff complained of faulty dishwashers and broken-down lifts
  
• New Broadcasting House in west London was refurbished in 2012
• The improvements are thought to have cost the corporation £1billion
• Workers say constantly the results are yet to be seen in faulty equipment
• Building manager chalked the problems down to 6,000 strong work-force

By Jennifer Smith for MailOnline

BBC workers have slammed one of the corporation's leading offices after being left at work without internet or telephone connections.

Staff at New Broadcasting House in West London deemed the building 'unfit for purpose' when, despite a £1billion refurbishment, lifts and dishwashers in the building broke down repeatedly.

Among other complaints was faulty equipment, cold canteen food and substandard IT services which left workers 'fed up'.

Their woes were revealed in published in the corporation's in-house magazine Ariel in the form of a letter written by Paul Moss, who works for The World Tonight on Radio 4.

'I had to deal with out telephone system not working, the internet connection breaking down on my computer ("You've got a profile problem, mate")... and the archive having an ongoing issue,' Mr Moss bemoaned.

'Fed up with trying to work like this, I set off for the canteen but the lift was broken, and the non-automatic automatic door still had its sign apologising for the inconvenience of its continued breakdown.'

Mr Moss also complained that the dishwasher seldom worked, and questioned how so many problems were occurring after such a costly refurbishment.

'How did a brand new building with brand new equipment end up with so many of its fixtures and fittings not working properly? And is anyone being held accountable for this?'

Other workers have complained about broken microwaves, cold canteen food and no forks to eat with.

One worker, who asked not to be identified, said: 'There are 6,000 of us in this supposedly state-of-the art building, but everything just keeps on breaking down.

'At first it was put down to teething problems, but a lot of us have been here for a couple of years now and so many things are still breaking down or causing major problems.

'For an organisation like the BBC not to have internet connection or phone service - even if just for a while - is embarrassing.

'The minor stuff, like the broken dishwashers, queues for the microwaves and broken lifts is just normal stuff really, but when you think that £1bn was spend on getting this place ship-shape, it is quite ridiculous.'

Building manager Andy Baker said he didn't 'recognise' the building described in workers' complaints.

'Like any workplace of this size there will occasionally be problems that need resolving, but the overwhelming feedback we receive is that New Broadcasting House is a great place to work and we don’t recognise the picture being painted in this letter.

'The Facilities Management team at NBH work hard to ensure the building runs as smoothly as possible.'

[Teddy Bear]

As we've seen in many other instances related to this new building, those with the decision to approve its construction didn't have a clue when it came to making it practical for use, but were 'bowled over' by how they thought it would make them appear.

How it makes them appear is arrogant, self aggrandizing, ignorant, and not fit for purpose.

BBC forks out £50,000 on meeting rooms across the street from its brand new £1billion HQ...which bosses say lacks space

• New Broadcasting House in central London took a decade to build
• It was opened by the Queen in 2013 at least £55million over budget
• But the BBC has now admitted it 'occasionally' runs out of meeting rooms

By Jonathan Petre for The Mail on Sunday

Built at a cost of £1 billion, New Broadcasting House is the jewel in the crown of the BBC and the setting for its self-mocking satire W1A.

But in a development that could have come straight out of the sitcom, it has been revealed that the Corporation is paying tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money to book meetings in nearby buildings because the headquarters lacks space.

New Broadcasting House in Central London covers half a million square feet, took a decade to build and was opened by the Queen in 2013 – four years behind schedule and at least £55 million over budget.

The huge steel-and-glass building has specially designed 'huddle zones' and a 'meeting tower' on stilts in the atrium.

One of the running jokes in W1A is that its fictional meeting rooms are named after popular entertainers – Hugh Bonneville's character Ian Fletcher, the BBC's 'Head of Values', frequently meets colleagues 'inside Frankie Howerd'.

Now, in response to a freedom of information request, the BBC has admitted it 'occasionally' runs out of meeting rooms and spent £47,198 on booking external spaces nearby during the last financial year.

Corporation insiders say these venues include De Vere's West One business centre and the luxury Langham Hotel – both just across the street from New Broadcasting House – and that meetings have included 'leadership breakfasts'.

One source said: 'The leadership breakfasts at De Vere are renowned for the lavish catering. The BBC is cutting jobs but can still afford to cater for breakfast meetings for senior managers.'

Another said: 'It's bonkers to hold meetings across the street.'

The BBC has been criticised by spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) over the running costs of New Broadcasting House, which are almost double that of comparable buildings in Central London.

A BBC spokesman said: 'It is occasionally necessary to book nearby venues, especially for larger meetings. Value for money is always taken into account.'

But Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said licence fee-payers would be furious over spiralling costs.

New Broadcasting House is home to three 24-hour news channels, nine radio networks and 6,000 staff.

[Teddy Bear]

You can bet that BBC bosses will have their own toilets working in perfect condition. As for the rest of the staff...

No doubt bosses will have to ask outside consultants how to improve moral for staff.

BBC bosses take five months to fix broken loo seat at new £1billion headquarters

• Seat in men's toilet on sixth floor was reported as broken before Christmas
• Building operations manager apologised after it was only recently repaired
• Staff have also complained that other toilets are frequently out-of-order

By Stephanie Linning for MailOnline

BBC bosses have apologised after it took five months to fix a broken loo seat at the corporation's new headquarters.

In a number of letters to in-house magazine Ariel, staff at New Broadcasting House in west London criticised the length of time it took to repair the seat in the men's toilet.

There were also complaints that there are not enough toilets in the building and the ones that are there are frequently out-of-order.

Meanwhile, notices asking employees to 'please refrain from stealing the toilet paper' have been put up on toilet doors in the building, which opened in 2012 after undergoing a £1billion refurbishment.

Some members of staff suggested the money had been spent on 'making the building look a certain way' rather than on the employees' facilities.

Writing to Ariel in January, Andrew Wiggins said that there was a seat in the men's toilet on the sixth floor of the building's Peel Wing that had been reported as broken before Christmas.

He wrote: 'Is there a single toilet anywhere in NBH [New Broadcasting House] that hasn't been out of order for an extended period during the last 12 months?

'In a building of so many people the provision for toilet facilities is woefully short, and ever shorter when they're out of service so regularly.

'It seems so much of the £1bn was spent on making the building look a certain way, without much care taken to spec all of its facilities (from technology to toilets) to be hardwearing and actually useable on a daily basis.'

This week, Andy Tijou, an audio-visual technician at the headquarters, revealed the loo seat had still not been fixed - more than five months since it was reported to maintenance workers.

In a letter to Ariel, which has been published online since December 2011, he wrote:'I feel shocked to say that this toilet is STILL waiting for a replacement seat. The toilet was broken just before Christmas and I find it hard to believe that it takes five months to order in and fit a replacement seat.

'Other toilets in the area are also faulty. The one next door, for instance, has a cracked seat and the tissue dispenser has been broken for some time.'

Writing in February, Rupert Brun, the Head of Technology at BBC Radio, said he was forced to try 'seven toilets across three floors' before finding one that worked.

He even jokingly suggested that the Corporation should extend its room-booking system to the toilets.

He added: 'I can only guess that those in charge of such things don't give a s**t, but for the rest of us it's getting uncomfortable.

'It's actually quicker to pop out to the Yorkshire Grey (pub), buy a pint and use their toilet than to find a working one in BH.'

Robert Thomas, the facilities management operations manager, apologised for the wait in fixing the toilet seat in the Peel Wing, but said there were occasions when 'specialist parts' were unavailable.

But he said that he was now 'pleased to report' that it had now been replaced.

A BBC spokesman said: 'We’ve already got to the bottom of this and fixed the problem.'