Questions for council as asbestos inquiry opens

4:00am Monday 17th December 2007

THE inquiry into an asbestos scandal that put the lives of workers at a sports centre at risk will start today.

Independent assessors will try to establish why Wear Valley District Council ignored reports about asbestos levels at Woodhouse Close Leisure Complex, in Bishop Auckland.

In August, the council was fined £18,000 by Government health inspectors after staff were allowed to work unprotected in the centre's boiler room for five years, even though bosses had been warned of the danger.

The inquiry will be held at the council's Civic Centre headquarters, in Crook, County Durham, and will be chaired by Peter Kemp, a retired council chief executive with more than 30 years' experience. He will be joined on the panel by six district councillors - two each from the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Independent groups.

Robert Batie, 56, who worked at the leisure centre for 13 years until 2003, said last night: "I'm looking forward to it getting started.

"I just want to see what happens. I might go along myself, but there's not much I can do.

"I can't understand how people who are supposed to be responsible can let something like that happen."

Councillors decided to hold the inquiry in public and appoint an independent chairman to ensure it is "fair and transparent".

Discussions will only be held in private if they relate to an officer not directly involved in the case, or if confidentiality is in the public interest. The council admitted six serious breaches of health and safety law in court, but none of the executives in charge at the time were able to appear because they had since moved to different jobs.

The district council was told about the asbestos in 2001, but did nothing to treat it, or to protect staff from the danger, until January last year, when a maintenance worker found out about the report and complained to the Health and Safety Executive.

Richard Bishop, the inspector who led the investigation, described the breach as the worst he had ever seen.

The inquiry begins at 6pm. For a report on the first day of the proceedings, read The Northern Echo tomorrow.

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