From today’s Advertiser :

“FOSTER ROW CHIEF MUST QUIT- UKIP

But council insists that decision to remove children was the right one.

Joyce Thacker

UKIP members called for Rotherham Children’s Services chief Joyce Thacker to resign this week – despite an investigation concluding the borough council were right to remove three children from foster carers who supported the party.

Election agent and UKIP member John Wilkinson – who masterminded newly -elected Caven Vines’ victory in last Thursday’s Rawmarsh by election – branded Mrs Thacker “an affront to the freedom. justice and personal prosperity of the children and people of this borough”.

Mrs Thacker came under fire last November when she gave a tv interview which appeared to give substance to claims the children had been taken away because their foster parents were UKIP members, noting that the council had to think about the children’s “cultural and ethnic needs”.

Rotherham Borough Council said this week that a an investigation had concluded that the decision was the right one and in the children’s “best interests” but apologised for the way it handled the media focus after the row erupted.  Mr Wilkinson noted that the couple at the centre of the dispute had still to receive an apology and called for resignations, including that of  chief executive Martin Kimber and Council Leader Roger Stone.

“That Rotherham Council have been forced to apologise is a second serious embarrassment for Rotherham’s head of social services, following on so soon on the back of her role and lack of intervention in the child grooming scandal”, said Mr Wilkinson who is UKIP’s local organiser for Rotherham. “

 Read more at  http://rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk/home.aspx

Roger Stone

Good news that John Wilkinson and Caven Vines are speaking out in this way but why are they calling for resignations and not dismissals ? 

Martin Kimber