Rochdale MBC and council leader Colin Lambert are being sued for libel by two private care home operators after suggestions that vulnerable children would not be safe in the town. Nick Cunningham explains.

The leader of Rochdale Council, Colin Lambert, may yet have a better opportunity than he bargained for to publicise the failings of the section 41 care home system. Should libel proceedings issued against him and Rochdale Council by Meadows Care and Pathfinders Childcare proceed to trial, there will be a very public investigation of exactly what he said last year when he criticised the system following the paedophile grooming convictions in Rochdale.