Political

Dimensions Leisure Centre: Stoke corruption probe update

A quick update from LocalGov as I’ve blogged on the story before:

The police will not be charging former Stoke Mayor, Mark Meredith, and two other men with corruption after the Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough evidence to make a case.

Mr Meredith, who no longer holds a role at the council following a change in its political system, had been arrested along with former portfolio holder for children’s services, Roger Ibbs and local business man Mo Chaudry.

After consulting lawyers, the council’s external legal advisors approached Staffordshire Police in November last year to investigate a number of allegations which specifically concerned the proposed closure of the council-run Splash Pool facility at Dimensions Leisure Centre, Burslem…

A council statement reads: ‘Given the seriousness of the issues raised by the internal inquiry into the proposed closure of Dimensions, the council believes it acted correctly in seeking external legal advice.

‘We are now considering whether any issues surrounding these inquiries need to be referred to the council’s standards committee.’

UPDATE: The council also decided to drop any standards committee action against Roger Ibbs.

UPDATE 2: In 2013, the BBC reported another twist in the leisure centre story with the news that Mark Meredith, “has resigned from Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s cabinet after documents about a controversial plan to close a leisure centre were released”.

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