Whitehaven News calls for Elaine Woodburn to resign over Pow Beck

Here are some extracts from The Whitehaven News leader article this week calling on the Leader of Copeland Borough Council, Elaine Woodburn, to resign over the council's handling of the Pow Beck fiasco.


"POW BECK - WHY HEADS MUST ROLL


COPELAND Borough Council has attempted to dupe the public over its failings in the Pow Beck Stadium fiasco.
When the multi-million-pound scheme collapsed in 2012 – costing not only public money but also Whitehaven the chance of hosting the Rugby World Cup – people wanted answers. Last week, they thought they finally had them.
It turns out, however, that the council’s review of the debacle published last week didn’t even scratch the surface of what went wrong.
When the scheme collapsed, a review was quickly ordered and consultant Rob Blanden was drafted in to contribute his over 20 years of experience.
A lot of what Mr Blanden found – and reported in his first draft – was damning; systematic failings, lack of clarity at various levels and too much focus on the politics of the plans.
However, the final version – reported in good faith by The Whitehaven News last week – bore little resemblance to the original. Mr Blanden had been explicit in his criticisms. But by the time the report reached the public – via us – it had been so wrapped up in council speak and shrouded in vague terminology of “continuity risks”, “strategic projects”, “governance structures” and “stakeholder analysis” that it made it difficult to pin down what had gone wrong and why.
Credit to Sean Duffy for persevering. He believed there was more to this report than meets the eye. He was right – and his work has resulted in the “draft” version coming to light. Copeland had hoped it would not.
The whole tone of Mr Blanden’s views had been watered down and presented by Copeland as a positive model for improvement. We had been spun.
This is just another sorry chapter in the whole Pow Beck fiasco. When the scheme collapsed in 2012, The Whitehaven News suggested Paul Walker and council leader Elaine Woodburn should resign. We repeat our call this week."


You can read the full article here at 

 "http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/home/pow-beck-why-heads-must-roll-1.1167592"

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