17/09/2014

Council Committee Chair Resigns In Ashya King Review Dispute

A dispute over how the case of brain tumour patient Ashya King is being reviewed has led to the resignation of the chairman of a Portsmouth City Council committee.

Alistair Thompson has resigned his post, saying that his scrutiny management policy is being "blocked".

It is understood that Portsmouth City Council has said that a Portsmouth Local Safeguarding Children Board (PSCB) review should take priority.

Five-year-old Ashya King was made a ward of the court following a request by the council, after the child's parents removed from a hospital in a dispute with doctors.

Brett and Naghemeh King were arrested in Spain after taking Ashya from Southampton General Hospital on 28 August.

Mr and Mrs Kings were held, and kept from their son, until the Crown Prosecution Service dropped a European Arrest Warrant.

Mr Thompson has now resigned from the council committee after a review of the circumstances in which Ashya was taken from the hospital and into Europe, announced by the PSCB on 05 September, was given priority over his own Scrutiny Management Committee review.

He said that his committee should review the case rather than wait for "some sanitised report" by the PSCB.

(MH/IT)

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