AN inquiry into one of the worst health and safety breaches the region has ever seen could be held behind closed doors, it emerged yesterday.

Staff who may have been affected by asbestos at Woodhouse Close Leisure Complex, in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, fear the investigation could become "a whitewash" unless the public are allowed to attend.

Wear Valley District Council is to launch an inquiry to establish why officers ignored a 2001 report that found dangerous asbestos at the council-owned sports centre.

An unknown number of staff were exposed to the cancer-causing materials for five years before it was removed.

The council was fined £18,000 by the Government's Health and Safety Executive and later apologised to the people affected, but it is still not clear why the report was ignored or who was responsible.

Robert Batie, who was employed as a maintenance worker in the swimming pool's boiler room for 13 years until 2003, said yesterday: "If the inquiry is held behind closed doors people will think it is going to be a whitewash.

"People want to know what happened - it is in the public interest."

Richard Bishop, the inspector who took the council to court after a member of staff contacted the HSE, said the breaches were the worst he had ever seen.

The council's solicitor told the court last month that the senior officers in charge at the time had since left the authority.

Last week, the authority's chief executive, Michael Laing, said councillors would be asked to approve plans for an inquiry at a meeting on Wednesday.

But yesterday the authority revealed that members will still have the option to hold the in-house investigation in private.

A spokeswoman for the council said: "It will be going to a special meeting of the committee and it is up to them to decide what the terms of reference will be.

"The meeting on October 3 will be open to the public."

The spokeswoman added that the final report would be made available to the public.

The leader of the council and the leader of the opposition from 2001 said yesterday that officers never told them about the asbestos at Woodhouse Close.

Olive Brown, the retired leader of the authority's Labour group, said: "The first I heard about this was in the newspaper.

"I can't believe this kind of information could have been kept from elected members.

Chris Foote Wood, the former leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition, said: "I have thought very carefully about this and at no time whatsoever was I given any inkling that there was any problem of this nature."

Retired councillor Derek Jago, who has called for the officers responsible for the cover-up to be named, said the inquiry should be held in public.

"This has to be sorted out in the open," he said.

"To be fair, I don't think there would be a whitewash, because the people who are apparently to blame for this have now gone, but the investigation should be held in public."

Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodman said yesterday she was not aware of the HSE investigation but would be contacting the council to find out what happened.