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w w w. t h i s i s s t a f f o r d s h i r e . c o . u k
Established 1854
SECRE T COUNCILHANDOU T PLANFOR WATERWORLD
Man arrestedin America over1992 murdersA FORMER Stoke-on-Trentman has been arrested in theU.S. on suspicion of twomurders dating back morethan 20 years.
The 44-year-old was arrestedin connection with the deathsof Marilyn Cook and her sonNicholas Cook, who diedfollowing a house fire at theirhome in Travers Street,Middleport, on April 9, 1992.
Despite speaking to morethan 5,000 people during aninvestigation, StaffordshirePolice never made an arrest.
The suspect will now beextradited to the UK, aprocess which is expected totake a number of months.
Ms Cook, aged 40, andNicholas, aged 16, lived at theTravers Street property withSteven Hillman, Ms Cook'spar tner.
He survived the fire butsuffered serious injuries. Hehas since died, but not as aresult of the blaze.
The results of the post-mortem examinations for MsCook and her son gave theircause of death as smokei n h a l at i o n .
An inquest held at the timewas told that the family hadbeen under pressure to quittheir home in the monthsleading up to the fire, afterreportedly struggling withrent payments.
The suspect, who wasarrested on Tuesday, January8, is to be extradited afterdetailed inquiries byStaffordshire Police and theCrown Prosecution Service.
Revealed: Deal to subsidise swimming sessions with taxpayers’ cashTRAGEDY:MarilynCook diedafter ahouse firein 1992.
BY ALEX [email protected]
A SECRET deal to shutDimensions splash pool wasagreed between senior coun-cil officers and WaterWorldowner Mo Chaudry, confid-ential documents havereve a l e d .
The full paper trail expos-ing negotiations in emailsand letters between MrChaudry and Stoke-on-TrentCity Council over the abor-ted 2008 closure plans hasfinally been disclosed to Th eSentinel.
It reveals a council dir-ector confirmed in an emailto Mr Chaudry that theBurslem splash pool wouldclose and £50,000 in taxpay-ers’ cash would be used torun a pilot scheme offering‘f re e ’ access for school-agechildren to WaterWorld inFestival Park.
The city council hasrepeatedly denied that it hadstruck a deal with the busi-nessman.
In the email to MrChaudry, community ser-vices director Julie Seddonsaid: “Thanks for our meet-ing today. In summary, weagreed the following: Dimen-sions to close (Jan 08); runpilot to value of £50k for freeaccess to WaterWorld forschool age children.”
Records of a Renew North
Staffordshire meeting heldfour months before theDimensions closure waseven made public state: “Citycouncil to develop a swim-ming contract with Mo inanticipation of future swim-ming facility shortages.”
Meetings between MrChaudry and the councilwere facilitated by then Elec-ted Mayor Mark Meredith,who is now a Labour cabinetm e m b e r.
He and Mr Chaudry, whosaw Dimensions as a tax-payer-subsidised competitorto WaterWorld, workedtogether on the NorthStaffordshire RegenerationPar tnership.
Plans were at such anadvanced stage that in early2008 Mr Chaudry was intalks with the council overspecific discounts at Water-World for city taxpayers andboth parties had discussedannouncing the scheme.
But former council chiefexecutive Steve Robinsonlater told Mr Chaudry nodeal had been agreed, after
Mr Meredith made the clos-ure plan public and faced amajor backlash.
Mr Robinson stated thatthe elected mayor, individualcouncillors and officers hadno power to agree a dealwithout wider approval –prompting Mr Chaudry tothreaten legal action.
The council proposed toshut the pool to save £60,000 ayear but withdrew the plansbecause it said the predictedsavings could not be made.
More than 7,000 residentshad signed a petition againstthe closure.
Mr Chaudry, Mr Meredithand senior councillor RogerIbbs, who had been involvedin the discussions, were laterarrested on suspicion ofcommitting variousoffences, but never charged.
The council apologised toMr Chaudry and paid him£21,850 to drop his legalthreat in 2011, concedingsimply that discussions hadtaken place.
Mr Meredith said: “I ampleased the full story can nowbe told.” Mr Chaudry wasunavailable for comment.
The council was ordered toreveal the documents by aninformation rights tribunal.
What do you think? Emailus at [email protected] documents: SeePages 6 and 7
U-TURN:Our frontpage storyreportingthe poolwould stayopen inJune, 2008.
LOFTKEENTOS TAYAT VALEBACK PAGE
2 FOR 1ENTRY AT
www.thisisthesentinel.co.uk 32pFriday, June 6, 2008
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First Edition
ONLINETODAY
Our greatsports
To see video showing offthe best of Stoke-on-Trent’ssporting talent go to www.thisisthesentinel.co.uk/sportsawards
For more stories on thefight to keep the splash
pool open, go to www.thisisthesentinel.co.uk/dimensions
U-turn as council realises£60k saving doesn’t exist
U-turn againas schoolswon’t closeFAMILIES were celebratingtoday after plans to close twoprimary schools were droppedfollowing an outcry from staffand parents.
Holden Lane Primary, inSneyd Green, and Heron CrossPrimary have been given thereprieve just weeks after Stoke-on-Trent City Councilannounced they might shut.
The closure options werepart of a £70 million scheme totransform primary educationacross the city, with fiveschools also earmarked to berebuilt.
Holden Lane could havemerged with New FordPrimary, in Smallthorne, whileHeron Cross could haveamalgamated with BlurtonPrimary.
Heron Cross came underthreat because it has asignificant number of surplusplaces. But now some of itsrooms could be used for otherservices, such as College in theCommunity classes.
Andrew Whitehead, HeronCross Primary’s vice-chairmanof governors, said: “We arecock-a-hoop. It’s absolutelyfantastic news.”
Adrian Knapper, portfolioholder for children and youngpeople’s services, confirmedthe city council has decidednot to proceed with theclosures “for the time being”.
He added: “We’ve listened towhat people have to say andhave taken on board theirconcerns.”
GROOVY, BABY! BACK TO THE 60sBACK TO THE 60s PAGE27
PAGE27
SPLASHPOOL WILLSTAY OPENBY IAIN [email protected]
THOUSANDS of protesters havewon their fight to keep a leisurecentre swimming pool open – aftercouncil chiefs messed up theirsums.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council hadalways stressed the closure of thesplash pool at Dimensions leisurecentre, Burslem, was justifiedbecause it would save the author-ity £60,000 a year.
But councillors yesterdayadmitted the £60,000 figure doesnot exist.
Councillor Mohammed Pervez,portfolio holder for communityengagement, admitted: “The fig-ure of the saving of £60,000 is notthere, and therefore we cannot jus-tify closing Dimensions splashpool.”
The blunder emerged during areview of income streams and run-ning costs for the entire Dimen-sions complex on Scotia Road,Burslem.
Mr Pervez added: “Theoriginal decision wasalways dependent on acomprehensive reviewbefore any decision tookplace. That will con-tinue.”
Elected Mayor MarkMeredith had gone toDimensions yesterday totell staff their jobs were
safe because the £60,000 a yearsaving could not be found.
He said: “We always said wewould make the decision onDimensions based on the clearest,most up-to-date financial inform-ation available and that it would bepart of the review of communityand leisure services.
“It is clear from that reviewthat the savings cannot bemade.”
The splash pool closure planwas announced in February as
part of a raft of cost-cuttingmeasures in this year’s
budget.But Mr Meredith
today denied the U-turn castsdoubt over the rest of the budget.
He added: “We want to makesure that Stoke-on-Trent is recog-nised clearly as a city of sport andwe want to make the best use of theassets we have.”
Dimensions campaigner HughIrvine, who had presented a 7,000-plus name petition to the council,said he was “relieved and mys-tified” by the announcement.
He said: “I just wish the councilhad thought about the plans toclose the splash pool a bit morebefore publishing them.
“When we did our own researchit quickly became very clear thatthe cost of closing the pool was atleast £1 million, but when we toldthem, they wouldn’t listen.”
Do you trust the rest of thebudget? Email us at [email protected]
How closure sparked outrage:Page 16; Comment: Page 10
POPULAR: Dimensions splash pool.Below, councillor Pervez.
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