Anger over sex abuse report
SENIOR councillors admit recommendations from a report into student sex abuse should have been shared three years ago to protect other children.
Herefordshire Council commissioned and funded an investigation, in April 2017, into the handling of a case in which a local student was abused by another.
The report contained clear recommendations about how to shield a victim from their abuser and a risk assessment to help schools keep victims safe.
These recommendations would have helped prevent other children being put back into school with their
BRISTOL City Council has sold the city’s first ever railway station to Network Rail for £3.1 million.
Bristol Old Station, which today consists of the Engine Shed and Passenger Shed, was the original terminus that eventually grew into Temple Meads.
It was one of Britain’s first railway stations when it opened in 1840.
The Grade-I listed building, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is no longer in operational use along the railway network.
Mike Gallop, route managing director of Network Rail’s Western Route, said: “It is an honour to have this historic building in Network Rail ownership.
“The building deserves the best care it can get, and we are planning to do just that.
“I trust that Brunel would be pleased to know that his first station in Bristol is back where it belongs – within the railway family that will care and cherish it.”
The acquisition brings the building back into railway ownership for the first time since rail privatisation in the mid-1990s. abusers.
However, the council did not share the report’s findings with scrutiny committee councillors or schools at the time.
Last November, council leader David Hitchiner was informed of the issue and called for a review.
“The council was being asked to provide some assurances and I couldn’t see how those assurances could possibly be given without an investigation going back into the historic cases,” Cllr Hitchiner said.
“It was a no-brainer as far as I was
Bristol Old Station was the city’s first railway station, serving as the western terminus of the Great Western Railway from London Paddington.
Passenger demand soon outgrew the building and construction of the ‘new’ adjoining Temple Meads station started in 1871.
The original Brunel train shed functioned for 125 years until its closure on September 12, 1965, according to Network Rail.
It is one of the oldest surviving railway stations in Britain, and is now home to business incubator Engine Shed, which supports a group of start-up companies to grow.
Events space Passenger Shed is also based there, which hosts a range of events including exhibitions and weddings.
Network Rail says it plans to maintain the building’s current commercial use, while restoring the Grade I listed facilities.
The restoration works are part of wider plans for Temple Meads station, which make up part of the major Bristol Temple Quarter series of developments. concerned. There needed to be a review and I don’t know why, but other people’s logic was perhaps different.
“I could see this review needed to take place and it needed to be decided on quickly.”
Children and young people scrutiny committee chairman Carole Gandy told this week’s meeting that she was angry that councillors were not provided with the report’s findings.
“We cannot do our job properly if we are not provided with all the tools and information to do so,” she said.
“You cannot do good scrutiny if you do not have access to the information available and you struggle to gain that information.
“I’m quite angry about this report. Not the content, but the fact it was so difficult to get hold of parts of this report.”
Ceri Morgan, assistant director education, development, and skills, said it would have been better to have shared the recommendations at the time.
“The decision was taken not to share it at the time, and I think now, in a way, the world has moved on in terms of national guidance and expertise in this area,” he told the committee.
“It would have been helpful to share it and the report says it should have been shared at the time. But it wasn’t.”