Ibrox families demand fresh inquiry

Their demands come after newly-released documents from the National Archive of Scotland confirmed that the Scottish Counties of Cities Association, a forerunner of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), wrote to the Scottish Office six months before the January 1971 tragedy calling for legislation to give councils wider powers over crowd safety at bigger football grounds.

But civil servants advised the then Secretary of State, Gordon Campbell, to write to the local authority body denying it a role in licensing safety at football grounds.

Last night Matt Reid, who lost his father, Matthew, 49, in the disaster, said the decision in June 1970 prevented Glasgow City Council from assessing safety at the ground and may have sealed the fans’ fate .

Mr Reid, who witnessed his father slide into the sea of bodies on Stairway 13 at Ibrox, said his elderly mother, Helen, 81, had broken down in tears after reading about the secret Scottish Office documents. He said: "These documents have revealed a fatal oversight only six months before the tragedy and now leave the families of the victims with a lot of unanswered questions.

"Personally, the release of these papers 30 years on is heartbreaking for me and my family and an incredibly upsetting experience for my mother. She was in tears when she found out something could have been done six months before. For her to see reports about these papers on New Year’s day made things even harder to bare than usual."

He added: "As I see it, we have to force the Scottish Office to explain themselves here. I know football stadiums were in a terrible state in the Seventies, but if they have ignored calls for the improvement of safety, they are guilty of gross negligence. I believe there must be an urgent inquiry into the release of these papers, beyond that I also believe there may be significant grounds for a civil action which could lead to compensation for those who have suffered."

His view was backed by Mary Gibb, who lost her sister, Margaret, in the tragedy. She said: "I would give my full backing to family members seeking fresh answers, but neither me or my sister are interested in compensation. All we would want to know is why this information has been kept from us for 30 years, it could have made all the difference three decades ago ."

Rangers fans also came out in full support of the families’ appeals, but the club refused to comment claiming it was a matter for the relatives.

John Macmillan, 67, the general secretary of the Rangers Supporters’ Association, who was among the thousands of fans to witness the disaster, said the victims’ families appeared to have solid grounds to get serious answers from the secretary of state and even compensation. He said: "From what I understand of the situation the Rangers Supporters’ Association would certainly support the fans in this case. I would understand the families of the victims launching a legal case. "

Campbell Deane, a solicitor with the Glasgow firm Bannatyne, Kirkwood, France, said the families had significant grounds to demand answers, but the system may not help an appeal. He said: "While it is always open to the victims’ relatives to raise proceedings, it would be very difficult to persuade the court that the case has not become time-barred. But if the facts are correct they would certainly be entitled to raise an action." In normal circumstances a compensation claim cannot be raised later than three years after an injury or fatality has taken place, but given the fact that new information has come to light about the case, the families’ grounds for compensation may have been strengthened.

For Mr Reid, the memory of the disaster will never leave him . He said: "The timing of the release of these documents is all the more poignant considering the anniversary of the disaster.

"Thirty years on, the memory of that afternoon is still so vivid for me. When the surge of the crowd began I thought I would be swept down the stairs, but managed to get a grip of a handrail. My father was behind me at that point, but the force of the people coming down behind me was so strong that I started to lose my grip. Just at that point I heard the metal grinding and crushing just down the stair below where I was. That’s when my father got swept away. It was as if he had been swept away on a wave of water. I was still trying to cling on and it must have been horrible for him - the last thing I heard him shout was ‘Oh Christ, my boy’."