Speaking in the debate on Lancashire’s motion to cooperate fully with the national grooming gangs inquiry, Cllr Simon Evans, the county council’s Deputy Leader and a West Lancashire county councillor, drew on his own work alongside survivors. His speech is above.
Cllr Evans said he had spent more than two years working with survivors of these crimes, and spoke of the loss of confidence some have come to feel in the process. Whatever people’s doubts, he said, the council’s duty is clear: “we must, and we will, as a local authority cooperate fully with the inquiry,” including releasing all the data it needs. He also described Lancashire as one of the main transit areas used for trafficking, an area gang members have used to lay low.
But he was frank that the inquiry is long overdue, and warned it must not go the way of others. He feared it could drag on for years, like the infected blood, Post Office and Hillsborough inquiries, and deliver too little at the end. If the country keeps running inquiries the same way, he argued, it will keep getting the same outcome and the same bland promises to “learn the lessons.”
“We owe it to these girls, and also some boys, to do this differently and do it properly,” he said. He backed the motion and pledged the council’s full help and all of its data to the inquiry.
The motion was carried on a recorded vote by 67 to 0. You can read our full report on the debate.
