Grenfell Tower fire in North Kensington - news and discussion

[Wilf]

Governmentt have finally said families can have £5,500 each. A really useful thing though would be an amnesty for anyone who was breaching a tenancy agreement or was an undocumented migrant. There will be families who probably feel like they can't access 'official' money.
Grenfell Tower fire: families to get £5,500 each from emergency fund, No 10 says - live updates

 

[agricola]

This twat Paget-Brown seems in total denial about how useless his council has been in reacting to this situation.

* Interview on BBC News.

That answer to the presenters question about the TMO almost had my TV out of the window. Of course the questions about what the TMO has or hasn't done are questions for now (he insisted they were for the inquiry); thousands of people live in properties they are meant to ensure are safe.

 

[agricola]

Governmentt have finally said families can have £5,500 each. A really useful thing though would be an amnesty for anyone who was breaching a tenancy agreement or was an undocumented migrant. There will be families who probably feel like they can't access 'official' money.

The immediate question to this is why is the state's emergency fund paying? As we have seen, the council has a couple of hundred million in reserve.

 

[maomao]

The immediate question to this is why is the state's emergency fund paying? As we have seen, the council has a couple of hundred million in reserve.

Do they just have the money lying around in an account? Knowing Tories it's more likely tied up in some sort of investment.

 

[HoratioCuthbert]

Not everyone is happy using the net or has easy access to it.

Plus there's something to be said for the personal touch when talking about attending council meetings or protests. You can't react as fast if you're all across the country.

e2a: also worth pointing out I said harder, not impossible.

the impersonal touch via the Internet probably even makes cohesive action within communities a bit harder really

 

[Pickman's model]

Do they just have the money lying around in an account? Knowing Tories it's more likely tied up in some sort of investment.

Apparently in their reserves so shouldn't be hard to get out the bank

 

[Doctor Carrot]

FFS.

Two women feared dead in Grenfell Tower were 'threatened with legal action' for raising alarm about fire safety

Here comes that anger again. I can't read or talk about this for more than a couple of minutes with anyone without feeling my piss start to boil

 

[8den]

Anywho, back on topic. Again Twitter, but this user has gone through the RBKC Grenfell Tower housing committee meeting, and you can clearly see residents complaints about the dangers of power surges, cladding and fire safety equipment are clearly ignored.

 

[Pickman's model]

 

[Cid]

There's something horribly disturbing about the cuteness of that pic. I mean not that I'm complaining, it's just cute, and then you think about why and where they're wearing those boots, and what they're doing. And er.. yeah. Disturbing.

 

[BemusedbyLife]

Some of the very few involved in all this whose integrity is beyond question

 

[Who PhD]

Five and a half grand hush money from Aus-Theresa May? Good? Bad?

 

[agricola]

From the Grauniad's live updates thread:

Kensington and Chelsea council has been relieved of responsibility for taking care of the survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster.

The work is being handed over to a new Grenfell Fire Response Team, made up of representatives from central government, the British Red Cross, the Metropolitan police, London-wide local and regional government and the London Fire Brigade.

It is embarrassing for the council, the wealthiest in the country, to have had to cede control.

Eleanor Kelly, chief executive of Southwark Council :

We want to make clear that whilst the emergency and local community response was nothing short of heroic, we know that the initial response was simply not good enough on the ground. People are angry, and rightfully sur focus is now ensuring those affected are being cared for and looked after.

The team is to provide 24-hour access to services and support at the Westway Sport and Fitness Centre. Help is to be provided for housing, funds, health, social care, food and advice.

Kelly said:

"Housing is our main priority. We will organise and speed up the rehousing process. We are currently working with those affected households to establish what their housing need is – as you can appreciate this takes time. By the end of Monday, 19 June, we aim to have contacted all known families affected by the fire and completed an assessment of what they need. The latest information we have is that 201 households have received emergency accommodation to date, of which 113 are homeless."

The British Red Cross, who have been involved since Wednesday, has a team of more than 60 volunteers to provide help. They will help distribute donations and meet grieving relatives as they arrive at airports.

Kelly said:

"There is nothing we can say that will blunt the feeling of loss and anger. But what I hope the new team and this package of support will start to get those affected by this tragedy the urgent assistance from the authorities they need."

One can only hope that, though they have been stripped of responsibility, RBKC still end up with the bill for all this.

 

[HoratioCuthbert]

Anywho, back on topic. Again Twitter, but this user has gone through the RBKC Grenfell Tower housing committee meeting, and you can clearly see residents complaints about the dangers of power surges, cladding and fire safety equipment are clearly ignored.

From the tweets:

"2. The London Fire Brigade recommended TMO visit Lakanal House in Southwark to familiarise themselves with the potential risk in high rises."

Unless she's quoting from another bit she hasn't highlighted, it actually says the LFB had to visit Grenfell tower to familiarise themselves with the building as well as another high risk flat . However according to reports at the start of this thread the LFB were not visiting these high risk flats as regularly as they should have been. We had visit like that where I worked as as a similar building to ours had caught fire though luckily it was a day center so no one was in it at the time. But afaik we've not had one like that since and it was a couple of years ago. Another case for tighter regulations here i think.

 

[Pickman's model]

From the Grauniad's live updates thread:



One can only hope that, though they have been stripped of responsibility, RBKC still end up with the bill for all this.

Huge clusterfuck for rbkc, I suspect special measures beckon

 

[8den]

I used to meet a Fireman in Bruce Grove Park regularly when out walking my dogs. We have springer spaniels, like the dog on the right, and he had one as well which just qualified as a search and rescue dogs, so they one on the right may be his dog, Freddy. Unbelievable training. Because they're often into disaster zone (like Haiti post earthquake) where puddles and the like may be contaminated, they're trained not drink from anything other their handler's water bottle. Their final test is a 48hr endurance challenge for both dog and handler in an abandoned quarry in Wales.

 

[8den]

From the tweets:

"2. The London Fire Brigade recommended TMO visit Lakanal House in Southwark to familiarise themselves with the potential risk in high rises."

Unless she's quoting from another bit she hasn't highlighted, it actually says the LFB had to visit Grenfell tower to familiarise themselves with the building as well as another high risk flat . However according to reports at the start of this thread the LFB were not visiting these high risk flats as regularly as they should have been. We had visit like that where I worked as as a similar building to ours had caught fire though luckily it was a day center so no one was in it at the time. But afaik we've not had one like that since and it was a couple of years ago. Another case for tighter regulations here i think.

Someone posted on twatter that one of the first things the Tories had planned post brexit was relaxing rules on building and housing standards.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Also been suggested that if they're spread out disparately across the country it makes it harder to form any kind of justice movement.

This is important imo.

Community is much stronger face to face.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

literally everyone in the world thinks those tossers are inhuman scum PK. they aren't 'taking the narrative'.

They may not

I was going to post a thread on 'solidarity actions with Grenfell residents' in Protest. Is that the best way to go or do people want to leave it all on this one?

I dunno whats best here, but there's this
Solidarity with residents of Grenfell tower

Nature of these things is that it will likely be quite generalised, but also likely to feature specific actions.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Oh, come on, in the internet age?

I think your apparent contempt for this valid point lacks a reasoned justification.

 

[Florkleshnort]

The immediate question to this is why is the state's emergency fund paying? As we have seen, the council has a couple of hundred million in reserve.

Isn't there insurance for this type of thing? It is fairly standard for private housing to have insurance against fire which would also cover the cost of temporary accommodation until things got sorted out. Do councils not bother taking out these things?

 

[Pickman's model]

Someone posted on twatter that one of the first things the Tories had planned post brexit was relaxing rules on building and housing standards.

Another of their plans scuppered

 

[brogdale]

Another of their plans scuppered

Maybe, but more likely just made a little more politically challenging to implement.

The swivel-eyed have had their eyes on the prize for a long time.

 

[Pickman's model]

Maybe, but more likely just made a little more politically challenging to implement.

The swivel-eyed have had their eyes on the prize for a long time.

View attachment 109657

God I hate that man

 

[Anudder Oik]

Five and a half grand hush money from Aus-Theresa May? Good? Bad?

Probably been mentioned aready but local residents admirably organized a collection themselves that has raised millions so Theresa May's offer of some trickle-down from her Saudi Arms deals is a late insult. The local residents need to take things further and make sure that nobody gets bought off, like accepting offers to relocate in Milton keynes, etc.

Having said that the locals who have made their collection should start dishing out cash soon to the victims, especially families with kids, but I imagine that is going to be a difficult logistical task.

 

[marty21]

Take a look at @natalieisonline's Tweet:

This woman is painstakingly going through publicly available minutes of KCTMO meetings, interesting stuff ,clear there were concerns about the cladding and power surges.

 

[Pickman's model]

Take a look at @natalieisonline's Tweet:

This woman is painstakingly going through publicly available minutes of KCTMO meetings, interesting stuff ,clear there were concerns about the cladding and power surges.

The master criminal always makes one fatal error and theirs was minuting the meetings at which problems with grenfell tower were discussed and placing them on the internet

 

[binka]

I see the next local election in rbkc will be 2018 - you'd imagine there will be some sort of 'justice for grenfell' candidate standing in most/all of the wards

 

[Anudder Oik]

Frankie Boyle on Theresa May.

 

[marty21]

The master criminal always makes one fatal error and theirs was minuting the meetings at which problems with grenfell tower were discussed and placing them on the internet

Tbf , they have to publish the minutes of board meetings on the council Website.