THE chairman of an inquiry into an asbestos scandal at a North-East council has defended the decision to delay the release of the report, saying investigations are ongoing.

Councillors at Wear Valley District Council clashed this week after it was announced that all meetings about the issue have been banned until after tomorrow's local government elections.

But Peter Kemp, the retired council chief executive who is leading the independent inquiry, said yesterday that the final results were not ready.

Investigations began in December to find out why council bosses failed to act on warnings about dangerous asbestos in the boiler room of Woodhouse Close Leisure Complex, in Bishop Auckland.

Members of staff may have been exposed to the toxic material, which can lead to a range of deadly diseases, including lung cancer.

In a statement released by the council, Mr Kemp denied claims that the panel's conclusions were being suppressed.

"It is not appropriate at this time to speculate on conclusions the panel might draw, as investigations into the incident are ongoing," he wrote.

"External legal advice has been taken to ensure that the final report will be fair, robust and legally compliant.

"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."

Mr Kemp, in his first public statement since taking on the role, denied claims made by opposition leaders Tommy Taylor and Vere Shuttleworth, in The Northern Echo this week, that the report was ready.

"Contrary to press opinion, the report has not at this time been finalised by the panel," he said.

Neil Stonehouse, leader of the Labour group at Wear Valley, said his party had no power over the inquiry, and that the authority's deputy monitoring officer banned meetings on the subject to stop debate from influencing the elections.

"It is an officer decision to stop these meetings from taking place for reasons of electoral law. It has nothing to do with this group," he said.

"I want to see this report released.

We do not want this to happen again. The panel is independent and goes its own way. If we interfered with it, it would not be independent."

Derek Jago, a former Liberal Democrat member at the council, said the inquiry should be given time to make sure the final report brings the people responsible for the scandal to account.

"I only hope that when the truth does come out, it is not watered down in any way," he said. "Cancer touches ever family. I can't imagine what people who have been put at risk because of this must be feeling.

"When a report gets signed off it has to be done in such a way that the people who are responsible have to be shown to be responsible. We have got to make sure that when the report comes out it is exactly right. There are lives at stake."