Opposition councillors repeat call for senior politicians to resign over care home ‘debacle’

Knottingley’s three Lib Dem councillors issued a statement which also called for disciplinary action to be taken over the decision to shut Hazel Garth.

It comes after a review into the incident, published on Tuesday, found the closure was “not justified”.

A recommendation was made that Wakefield Council should pay compensation to those affected by the decision.

The statement, by councillors Peter Girt, Adele Hayes and Rachel Speak, said: “Now that the official review into the closure of Hazel Garth has been released the local Lib Dem Councillors feel it is right to comment publicly.

“We feel that, although the review is very damning of the council, it does not go far enough.

“The review concentrates more on what went wrong, and how to prevent it happening again in the future, rather than identifying who is responsible.”

Last month, calls were made for Maureen Cummings, then cabinet member for communities, poverty and health, to resign before the publication of the report.

Changes to the cabinet team have been made following the outcry, with councillor Michelle Collins being appointed to a new cabinet portfolio specifically dedicated to adult social care and health.

Coun Cummings remains in the cabinet with a reshaped communities and poverty portfolio.

Responding to the criticism at the time, Coun Cummings said: “I believe that we were misinformed.

“And I believe that when you read the report you will see that that has happened.

“I think we should wait for the outcome of that review before we take any further action.”

The Lib Dem group statement adds: “At July’s full council meeting we called for Coun Cummings to do the honourable thing and resign.

“She has failed to do so. Therefore, we now call for her to be sacked.

“She should no longer hold a cabinet role.”

The Lib Dem group also called for the review to be fully debated at the next full council meeting.

They added: “We are told that we can ask questions of the leader (Denise Jeffery) when she presents her report, but that is not good enough.

“This is a blatant attempt to prevent us speaking out publicly and shows that senior council officers and the controlling Labour group now want to hush this up and make it go away as quietly as possible.

“No wonder locals refer to Knottingley as ‘Forgottenly’ or ‘Nothingly’.

“We call upon the leader to stop running from this issue and to add it to the agenda in order to allow a full and open debate at the next meeting of the full council.

“There needs to be accountability. We feel the leader, Coun Denise Jeffrey, has shown she is no longer capable of leading our city and we call for her to resign.”

In response, Coun Jeffery said: “I won’t be resigning. I don’t feel there is a need to resign.

“As soon as I knew there was an issue I took urgent action calling for the review.

“I met the families straight away.

“I apologised to full council. I don’t think this a political thing.

“This is more about how we move forward. Me resigning isn’t going to help to move things forward.

“I want to be here to put the solution in place and I intend to do that.”