Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Peter Collins
Collins wins case - warden's actions vindicated!
A four day industrial tribunal held in Newcastle just before Christmas has found that Peter Collins was wrongfully dismissed from his job as the National Trust Warden for the Leas and Trow Rocks. Mr. Collins was sacked and forced to leave his National Trust home after details of a controversial report were leaked to the Shields Gazette.
The report, which South Tyneside Council sat on for fourteen months revealed details of a noxious mix of poisons, carcinogens, and dangerous gases buried in the former Trow Quarry, now a popular (if dangerous) beauty spot.
The Industrial tribunal's report vindicating Peter Collins' actions states that
"the (Council's) report showed that the environment has been, is being, and is likely to be damaged".
In a later statement for The National Trust a spokesman indicated their view that the Tribunal was concerned only with the procedures used to sack Mr. Collins and not with the way that Trow Quarry was managed. He also indicated that there has been no change in the management of the site. (It seemed to the public that the two issues were inextricably tied together, one could not talk about Peter Collins without talking about the management of Trow Quarry and the High-Point Rendell report.)
Peter Collins did the public a great service by ensuring that the contents of the Trow Quarry (Draft) reort were made public, he helped to heighten the awareness and concerns of people who had almost fell asleep with this report in their laps. His passion and concern for the land he worked upon was very apparent at the Tribunal which reported "that his sincerity shone through. we have no doubt that he had no ulterior motive, nor was he actuated by malice."
Of course, it is unlikely that Mr. Collins will be reinstated in his former job, there would possibly be too much ill will to make that tenable, so a suitable compensation fee is likely to be discussed between the parties. however the resultant publicity from the Tribunal may bring about a more open and direct approach to making Trow Quarry safe and secure for public use, for now and for the future. Despite assurances from the National Trust that they would do everything in their power to restrict public access to the most sensitive and fragile areas of coastal erosion at the site, to date nothing concrete (other than the erection of a couple of new notices) has been achieved, as the picture above clearly shows.
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Collins finds dead seabirds in 2001
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