Families' anguish over Rotherham men missing after Didcot disaster

A PETITION launched to raise awareness of  the plight of two Rotherham demolition workers missing in the Didcot power station disaster has attracted more than 800 supporters.

Ken Cresswell (57), from Clifton, John Shaw, from Kimberworth, and colleague Christopher Huxtable, from Swansea, have been trapped in the wreckage of the disused power plant since February 23.

Friends said their families felt not enough was being done to look for them.

Thames Valley Police said it was working with the Health and Safety Executive on safely dismantling the remainder of the partly-collapse building, and recovering the missing men but it is understood rescue attempts at the Oxfordshire site had been called off just days after the disaster.

Nadia Shepperson, a friend of Mr Cresswell and his wife Gail, said: “They have decided they’re not worth looking for.”

The petition was launched “to push the rescue forward” and reads: “The families of all these men have suffered enough now and want them home.

“So please spare two minutes of your time to sign this petition and get these men home to their families where they belong.”

Family members will travel to the site this Sunday to stage a protest and call for renewed action to rescue the missing men and invited supporters to join a coach party leaving the Stag pub at 9am or follow in convoy.

The families of both Mr Cresswell and Mr Shaw said in statements released through the police this week that they had not “given up hope” of them being recovered and returned home.

Fire officers said days after the disaster that there had been “no signs of life detected” in the wreckage and this week police were talking in terms of the “recovery of the bodies of the three missing people”.

Mrs Shepperson said the Cresswells were “a lovely, close-knit family” who she had known for many years.

Demolition firm Coleman and Company issued a statement this week confirming the names of Mr Cresswell, Mr Huxtable and Mr Shaw.

“We know how much they are deeply loved and missed by their families,” the firm said.

“We share their hope that our men are recovered soon and returned home.”

Thames Valley Police said its “first priority remains the recovery of the bodies of the three missing people so they can be returned to their families”.

Assistant Chief Constable Scott Chilto said: “We now move forward to a new phase to answer the engineering challenge presented by the collapsed building and how we safely dismantle the remainder of the building and support the investigation to establish how this happened.”

Thames Valley Police said it had met the missing men’s families on Monday, which was “part of the ongoing support that is being given at this difficult time.”

Any questions they may have were being answered by family liaison officers, a spokeswoman said.

You can see the families’ petition at http://tinyurl.com/didcotpetition.