'Hand over asbestos scandal report now'

2:03am Tuesday 29th April 2008

FURY has erupted after the publication of a damning report into the asbestos scandal at a North-East council was blocked ahead of local government elections.

Wear Valley District Council was fined £18,000 after bosses ignored warnings about the dangerous fibres at a sports centre in Bishop Auckland.

Staff were not told about the danger and were left to work unprotected with the asbestos for the next five years.

An inquiry report into the incident at Woodhouse Close Leisure Complex is now ready, but the findings have still not been released - even though council leaders promised the results would be made public.

Councillors were to meet twice this week to discuss the matter, but both debates have been postponed.

Officers at the council have ruled that debate on the issue would influence Thursday's local government elections, which could lead to the results of the polls being called into question.

The authority's departing chief executive, Michael Laing, has previously said he wanted to see the report published as soon as possible.

Earlier this month, he told The Northern Echo: "My advice is that this report should be given to the council as soon as possible."

But Councillor Charlie Kay, the deputy leader of the controlling Labour group, said: "On the deputy monitoring officer's advice, it is a period of purdah and it would be inappropriate to go against that advice."

Tommy Taylor, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the council, said he was livid about the delay.

He said purdah - the rule that bans politically contentious announcements in the run-up to elections - should not stop the report from being released.

"Where does purdah come into this? The elections are for Dur-ham County Council, not Wear Valley," he said.

"We want answers and we are not getting them."

Councillor Taylor accused the authority's ruling Labour group of "stalling" the release of the report.

"They want to wait until the elections are out of the way," he said. "Once the elections are over with, they won't care how it goes."

The council was taken to court in August last year after Health and Safety Executive inspectors investigated the breaches.

Councillors and officers eventually agreed to hold an inquiry to establish why the incident happened and who was responsible.

The process was to be held in public, but several meetings were moved behind closed doors.

Vere Shuttleworth, the leader of the authority's Independent Group, said yesterday: "If there had been a proper will by the administration to have this brought to a quick and speedy conclusion, it would have been published by now."

Meetings were to be held this week to discuss the report's findings, but the council's deputy monitoring officer called for the meeting to be rescheduled for after the elections.

The report cannot be released until the meetings are held. The chairman of the council, Councillor Edward Murphy, has written to members to inform them of the decision.

Vere Shuttleworth, the leader of the Independent group, said the inquiry found out who was responsible for the incident last month.

He said: "I can't understand why that has still not been disclosed."

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