Carillion goes to court alone

A £30m magistrates' courts scheme in Bedfordshire is still in the melting pot - three years after three groups first pitched for the deal.
There has been some progress; the client for the project, the county council, is now in negotiations with only one of the original trio - Carillion.
It is understood that the council is no longer talking to the Modern Courts Group (Mowlem), while the other contender, Babcock & Brown, dropped out of the contest last year.
But the nature of the project has radically changed. The original proposal was to replace or refurbish existing courts at St Paul's Square, Bedford, and at Stuart Street, Luton, under the PFI route. But now only the Bedford deal will go forward as a PFI project, while Luton will be refurbished via a traditional route.
A project source said: "All the bidders wanted to demolish the Luton court. But that was not economically viable."
He continued: "The Bedford court will either be totally new build or refurbished. The outcome will depend on our negotiations with the contractor [Carillion]."
The source added that the Courts Bill, which proposes that magistrates' courts, county courts and crown courts should be housed in single complexes, has contributed to the delay of the project.