Asbestos report delay sparks councillors' anger
TWO meetings about an inquiry into the asbestos found in a Wear Valley Leisure centre have been postponed over fears they may affect the election, sparking anger among several councillors.Wear Valley District Council was fined £18,000 in August after failing to inform staff at Woodhouse Close Leisure Centre in Bishop Auckland about the existence of asbestos in the pump room for five years.
An inquiry was started in December to determine who was responsible for the management of the toxic material, but several councillors demanded a meeting to be held on Tuesday to explain why the report was so delayed saying the results were being deliberately delayed until after the election on May 1.
A second meeting was to be held on Wednesday to discuss the report itself.
Officers at Wear Valley District Council took the decision to postpone the meetings until after the election over fears they could affect voters, leaving Liberal Demorat Group leader Tommy Taylor furious.
Cllr Taylor said: “I am absolutely appalled that they have postponed these meetings. What have elections for Durham County Council got to do with a public inquiry into Wear Valley District Council matters?
“Reading between the lines, I think it’s the case that they daren’t release the results because it will be very damning of the Labour run council. I haven’t got that from speaking to the Lib Dem members from the panel, but from the fact that they have already been found guilty in a court of law and fined £18,000 for it.
“My biggest concern is for the Council Tax payers who are footing the bill for this and the longer it goes on the more expensive it will be. They have already paid the fine plus costs, and now they have had to pay for this inquiry, and now people are talking about seeking legal advice that will be yet more money taken from the wallets of the people of Wear valley.”
Independent Cllr Vere Shuttleworth joined Cllr Taylor and four others in demanding a meeting be held, but says he is being caught in the middle between the Lib Dems and Labour group.
Cllr Shuttleworth said: “It seems as if the Labour group are trying to delay the publication until after the elections while the Lib Dem’s want it out before because they think it will be damning of their political rivals. I am being dragged into a political squabble and it is disgraceful that politics should even come into it. This is a prime example of why party politics should be abandoned at local level. The fact is we want to know what happened and make sure it doesn’t occur again. Asbestos has serious health risks which could affect the people of Wear Valley and they need to know why the situation was not dealt with at the time.
“The public perspective is that Labour have been employing delay tactics, but if that is wrong it needs to be explained to the public which is why the meeting was so important.”
Labour group leader Neil Stonehouse echoed Cllr Shuttleworth’s view that the Lib Dems wanted to use the meeting to score political points.
Cllr Stonehouse said: “We would all have preferred the results to be out already but the officers have taken the decision to wait until after the elections.
“The Labour group do not believe this report will be damning of us as, although we were in control of the council at the time, the inquiry is looking at systemic failures rather than attributing political blame.
“It seems quite clear that the Liberal Democrats wanted to use the meetings for political gain over Labour before the elections, which is an absolute disgrace.
“I want to see this report finalised so we can move on and ensure that a situation like the one at Woodhouse Close is never repeated. In fact, both Labour members have signed off the report, it’s the Independents and Lib Dem’s who are yet to do so.”
Chairman of the panel Peter Kemp refuted claims that the inquiry results have been deliberately delayed, saying that inquiries like this always take some time.
Mr Kemp said: “In my view there has been no deliberate delay from the panel in terms of the date of issue of the report as no deadline had been stated. In my experience, inquiries of this type take a considerable amount of time and the panel is determined to present a fair and accurate report which fully investigates the incident. The report has not at this time been finalised by the panel and it is not appropriate at this time to speculate on the conclusions that the panel might draw as investigations into the incident are ongoing.
“The finalised report will be presented to the Chief Executive of Wear Valley District Council whose responsibility it will then be to release the document.”
