Telford child sex abuse: Council to hold special cabinet meeting over issue
Child sexual exploitation in Telford & Wrekin will be discussed in a specially arranged meeting of the borough council's cabinet.
The meeting, at 5pm on Thursday, March 29, at Addenbrooke House, Telford, comes as the council faces calls to commission a public inquiry into abuse in the borough.
The meeting will focus on current and past work carried out to tackle CSE.
A decision on whether to hold an extraordinary meeting of the council about the issue is expected to be taken by tomorrow.
Councillor Andrew Eade, leader of Telford & Wrekin’s Conservative opposition, has reiterated a call for the Labour-run council to commission a local and independent inquiry following reports of the scale and extent of child sexual exploitation in the borough.
The council has said a local inquiry might not give victims the answers they needed. But Councillor Eade said victims would not be properly supported by a national inquiry.
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“If we are to properly support victims, while at the same time identifying the underlying causes and problems of this dreadful situation, the ‘non-statutory’ local independent inquiry we have suggested is the only compassionate way forward.
“We would seek guidance from the Home Office to help set the terms of reference and appoint a suitable independent person to head up the investigation.”
However, Telford & Wrekin Council has said that a council-led inquiry would not be able to compel witnesses from organisations outside the council to give evidence.
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The authority has also said that such an inquiry would only be able to go back as far as April 1998, when the council came into existence.
As a result it said it would not be able to examine the full scope of the claims, some of which go back four decades.
In a statement the authority has also said the independence of such an inquiry would be questioned.
Councillor Eade was one of five Conservative councillors to sign a letter calling for an extraordinary full council meeting to be held to discuss an independent inquiry.
They have put forward a motion requesting an extraordinary meeting.
The motion has been backed by Telford MP Lucy Allan.
