Lib Dems call for action in wake of CSE report
Liberal Democrat Councillors have called on councils and the police to work together on recommendations in the damning Crowther Report.
The Independent Inquiry into Telford Child Sexual Exploitation revealed shocking failings in protecting young women and children from grooming, abuse and exploitation.
The report has made a number of recommendations to ensure the future safety of young people in the town, and now the Lib Dem group leaders on both Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire Council have called for swift action over the findings.
Telford & Wrekin Liberal Democrat Leader, Councillor Bill Tomlinson said: “It is very important that politicians and officials work together to ensure that all the lessons learnt by the inquiry are put into effect as soon as possible.
"All political parties should work together as the survivors do not want this issue to be a political football.
"We all need to digest the harrowing contents of the inquiry report and resolve that this must never happen again. The report has at last given the victims a voice.
"We must ensure that never again will victims be blamed – it is a lesson for us all. It is important that the full report is digested and there are no knee jerk reactions.
"So many reports are forgotten – left to gather dust on an official’s bookshelf or tucked away in an email file never to be accessed again. This must not happen in this case.
"The lessons learnt should never be forgotten and I would therefore support the recommendation that we have an annual review of our policies on child sexual exploitation and how they are working."
Shropshire Council's Lib Dem leader, David Vasmer, said: "We know that Telford is not the only town where appalling records of child sexual exploitation over many decades have been revealed.
"I will be calling on Shropshire to adopt the recommendations in the Telford inquiry report and, like Cllr Tomlinson, I will also be calling for an annual review of our policies.
"Whatever mistakes were made in the past – and there were many – everyone must work together to make sure that child sexual exploitation on this scale never happens again. We owe that to the children who were so cynically abused because their voices were ignored.”
