Tory council leader claims that residents ‘didn’t want’ sprinklers in Grenfell Tower

The Tory leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council – responsible for Grenfell Tower – has claimed residents chose not to have sprinklers as they didn’t want ‘disruption’.

Conservative Nick Paget-Brown claimed on newsnight that there was not a ‘collective view’ towards installing the devices during the tower’s refurbishment.

Experts have said that sprinklers could have been installed in the building for just £200,000 during the recent £10 million refurbishment.

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Paget-Brown said ‘‘I didn’t consider retrofitting sprinklers because we were told that what you try to do when you are refurbishing is to contain a fire within a particular flat so that the fire service can evacuate that flat, deal with the fire.

‘There was not a collective view that all the flats should be fitted with sprinklers because that would have delayed and made the refurbishment of the block more disruptive.

‘We are now talking retrospectively after the most enormous tragedy, but many residents felt that we needed to get on with the installation of new hot water systems, new boilers and that trying to retrofit more would delay the building and that sprinklers aren’t the answer.’