Grubby Dome gets a paint job

ANYONE who worried the Millennium Dome was not dazzling enough can rest assured. Ministers have come up with an ingenious way to attract the public: paint it bright yellow.

Officials became concerned that the Dome's white "self-cleaning" skin had not been doing the job effectively. Their eye-catching solution is designed to counteract the build-up of dust from building works at the Greenwich site.

The New Millennium Experience Company, the firm which runs the Dome, intends to stage nightly light shows, using filters to change the yellow to other colours including blue, its second corporate shade.

"It will not be a luminous, day-glo colour, it will be a sunrise yellow that will change colour at night," said one Whitehall source, adding confidently: "It will solve all the cleaning problems."

Last year Peter Mandelson, while minister responsible for the Dome, announced that yellow would be the "official colour" of the Millennium. Posters advertising celebrations will also be in yellow and enormous yellow banners will be hung around the site.

The task of painting the biggest roof in the world will be no mean feat. Covering 20 acres, it is the largest fabric structure on earth, and strong enough to support a Jumbo Jet. The new move may not prove universally popular, however, and is expected to attract criticism from neighbourhood groups, which fear residents will be kept awake by the multicoloured night-time light shows.