If you followed our Twitter stream reporting from the full council meeting last night, you would have seen the tweet reporting that Cllr Chris Whitehouse suggested former CEO Steve Beynon and former education chief Roger Edwardson be called back to the IWC to answer questions over the state of the Island education system.
Cllr Whitehouse tells OnTheWight that he has has today (Thursday) written to the Chair of the Council’s Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel, Cllr John Howe, formally asking,
That Steve Beynon (pictured), “be invited back to answer questions about his record in office along with Roger Edwardson who was brought in by the previous Council as an education troubleshooter.”
The letter was copied to Cllrs Priest and Lumley.
Cllr Whitehouse went on to say,
“With five schools in and around Wellington Road at the heart of my ward of Newport West, I have a moral and democratic responsibility to do all that I can to ensure that lessons have been learned and that the life-chances of another generation of children are not damaged.
“We cannot learn the lessons if we cannot question Mr Beynon and Mr Edwardson to find out just what went wrong. I hope that they will welcome an opportunity to come and give an account of themselves.”
Don’t wait for Ofsted report
The Ofsted report following last week’s inspection of the Isle of Wight council (listen to our interview with the Regional Director) is expected to take several weeks to arrive.
Cllr Whitehouse says he’s keen not to wait until it is received before action is taken, adding,
“Time is of the essence, we need to ensure that we already have a date in the diary by the time the letter is received. As I said at Full Council on 19th June, we should all be not embarrassed, but ashamed of the dreadful state of affairs.”
Similar sentiment from MP
Only last month, the Isle of Wight MP, Andrew Turner, said that the former CEO “has a great deal to answer for”.
