STOCKPORT EXPRESS resign mayor
‘ongoing concerns’
response to the findings of the report.
She said in the days leading up to its publication, the view of the then chief constable was that HMIC had ‘got it wrong’.
“The inspector [Ms Billingham) was herself very upset at the reaction” she said.
“She did not perceive that the senior leadership of the GMP were accepting her findings and the findings of her team.”
Baroness Hughes said this was as much the reason behind placing the force in special measures as the findings themselves.
“It would go up a notch in terms of the oversight that HMIC would routinely give from then on in, because she was not convinced that the current leadership took sufficiently seriously the findings of her report” she told the meeting.
“And that, of course, was largely the reason the leadership had to change.”
Coun Roberts also questioned why there had seemingly been a delay between Baroness Hughes’s ‘verbal briefing’ and her relaying the information to Mr Burnham.
The deputy mayor said that ‘of course’ she had informed Mr Burnham, albeit ‘informally’ as it was only when she saw the full draft that the details became obvious to her.
Mr Burnham confirmed details of the briefing had been relayed to him and a meeting to discuss the report was then convened between himself and the former chief constable and deputy chief constable.
This was held ‘about five days’ before the HMIC report was officially published.