Comment
Delays raise suspicions
THE failure of unnamed Wear Valley
District Council officials, who ignored
warnings about potentially-deadly
asbestos at a local sports centre for five
years, is clearly an extremely serious
matter.
Ever since the scandal came to light,
when the council was fined £18,000 in August
for health and safety breaches, we
have pushed for an inquiry to be held in
public so that the details of those failings
could be laid bare.
It is absolutely right that the staff at
Woodhouse Close Leisure Complex, who
were exposed to danger through either
appalling negligence or incompetence,
learn what happened and who was to
blame.
And it is right that the council tax payers
of Wear Valley are assured that
lessons have been learned and that it
cannot happen again.
But more than a month has passed
since the inquiry team produced its report
and there is still no sign of it being
made public, as was promised.
Two meetings to discuss the publication
of the report have been postponed
and we are now informed that it is not
appropriate to go public so close to the
local government elections on Thursday.
It is hard to escape the feeling that this
process has been dragged out to ensure
that the inevitable political embarrassment
for the council is avoided until
after voting has taken place.
9:16am Tuesday 29th April 2008
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