London council launches ‘drop-in’ sessions to seek public’s support in drafting formal response to Grenfell Tower Inquiry

Kensington and Chelsea Council is launching ‘drop-in’ sessions to give the public a say in how it formally responds to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, a council report has found. The West London local authority provided meetings dates earlier this month but reiterated them in a recent report into the implications of Phase 2 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry for the council.

The council has a self-imposed deadline of November to submit a formal response to the Inquiry’s which found it ‘bears considerable responsibility’ for the dangerous conditions which led to Grenfell Tower fire and its leadership ‘wholly inadequate’ to deal with the disaster. Kensington and Chelsea Council said it has so far accepted the findings of the inquiry without question and shouldered the blame heaped onto the Tenant Management Organisation running Grenfell Tower at the time because the council retained “ultimate responsibilities for its tenants and leaseholders” but also because housing services were handed back to the council in 2018.

The council’s recent report read: “The conclusion of the Inquiry therefore marks an important moment, with the report offering an authoritative account of failings that is broadly accepted by Council and community alike. It is a moment for the Council to seize, building on the changes we have already made and reflecting with humility and openness on what is left to do.

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"If we do not take this opportunity, we may lose yet more trust and cause further harm.” One-to-one sessions will take place on September 19 at the Kensington Leisure Centre and on September 24 at Chelsea Theatre between 4pm and 7pm.

Public meetings will also take place at Morley College between 6pm and 8pm on October 7 and November 7. These engagements are open to residents in a 500m radius of Grenfell tower as well as to all social housing tenants and anyone else in the community interested in participating.

The council the feedback it receives will “shape our final response and to design an ongoing mechanism for residents to hold us to account for the changes we are making”. It added: “Any analysis of the Inquiry report and its findings must somehow confront the awful reality of that night.

"The individual and systemic failures that the Inquiry has identified in the report must be seen through the prism of their catastrophic consequences for those affected.” Grenfell Tower Inquiry, chaired Sir Martin Moore-Bick, said the West London council’s own building control department failed to make sure a 2014 refurb of the tower complied with regulations.

The panel said the council lacked trained staff and had limited knowledge of the risks associated with using highly flammable aluminium composite panels. Some of the most stinging criticism was levelled at the council and TMO, which the panel accused of showing a ‘persistent indifference’ to fire safety and the safety of vulnerable people.

It said the council took little to no account of a 2009 independent and highly critical review into fire safety at Grenfell Tower and were unaware of another report four years later because the TMO had failed to disclose it to the council. The inquiry report read: “The TMO must also take a share of the blame for the disaster.

"As the client it failed to take sufficient care in its choice of architect and paid insufficient attention to matters affecting fire safety, including the work of the fire engineer.” The inquiry also slammed the council’s building control department, writing: “[It] failed to perform its function of ensuring that the design of the refurbishment compiled with the Building Regulations.

"It therefore bears considerable responsibility for the dangerous condition of the building immediately on completion of the work.” Kensington and Chelsea Council will review its report during a meeting tonight, September 18.

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