with thanks to thisisnorthkensington.wordpress.com

Comments

DAMESATHOME@GMAIL.COM
send the Dame your information, discretion assured.
Comments are welcome but do not necessarily reflect the view of the Dame.
Offensive/inappropriate comments will be deleted and the poster banned.

Wednesday 14 June 2017

WHAT CAN WE DO?


LIVES RUINED


Every Hornet's Nest reader will want to help those poor families affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy. 
For those who have lost family members, the pain must be indescribable and we can only send our heartfelt sympathy.
But what of tangible nature can we do?

The Dame is sure that someone is setting up a Just Giving page. If so, could the Dame have details so she can provide a link? 

Sad Badger also came up with an intensely practical idea. Throughout London, there are blocks of empty flats waiting for those elusive overseas buyers. 
The owners should be gently persuaded to donate use of their flats until permanent housing can be found.
What we need to avoid is putting families into the hands of racketeering landlords of quasi-slum property-of which there are many.

38 comments:

  1. From the Guardian:

    At Latymer Christian Centre, the team running another makeshift rescue centre say they have been overwhelmed with donations of food, water and clothes. They are now turning people away, asking instead for cash donations.

    “What we want is £500,000 to give these people a roof,” said Tim Burke, a community arts organiser in North Kensington who woke up to news of the fire and headed straight out to help.

    “There are people there who’ve woken up with their savings and life over.” A fundraising page has been set up. “When all this is finished people need a place to stay,” said Danny Donaldson, wearing a smoke mask, one of several donated by the New Lines tool shop.

    At the Christian centre, teams of volunteer doctors and trauma nurses are working with about 50 people. They are asking people who are arriving with donations to head to the Maxilla Club.

    “We’re coordinating with the other centres to try and find out what they need but there’s no one on the ground from a professional emergency response level,” he said.

    The JustGiving page is here:
    https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/grenfell

    ReplyDelete
  2. The teaching staff of Kensington Academy appear to have set up another JustGiving page here:

    https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/familiesofgrenfelltower

    ReplyDelete
  3. Paget Brown told he's got blood on his hands during live BBC interview

    ReplyDelete
  4. https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/grenfell

    ReplyDelete
  5. TMO to blame.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Flags at half-mast. Where is our MP ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She has been at the site throughout the day. Likewise a number of cllrs have been at the designated rest centres offering their support and speaking with residents.

      Delete
  7. People who lives nearby Grenfell Tower is also evacuated till unforeseeable future due to the fear of tower free falling at some point. They cannot go back to their home either. Does anyone know situation on asbestos in the tower? Because when WTC free falled on 9/11, there were asbestos everywhere and people got cancer from it many years later. Will TMO be compensating not just the TMO residents but the community too?

    Robert Black or the Company director showed up to support the victims, did they? I guess no apology is necessary.

    Who was responsible for the installation of flammable cladding?

    Will the residents sue TMO? I bloody hope so. It's time to hand the responsibility back to the Council.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Grenfell Tower has lots of asbestos. Aertex ceings for example to help contain fire outbreaks within the dwelling in which they occur. Also asbestos panels in many cupboards I think. The building itself was reinforced concrete designed to isolate fires that way. The fire should never have spread as it did. The cause of the rapid spread causing inferno in next to no time has to be the cladding they put all over the exterior to pimp it up and make it look a bit more posh to match the wonderful new academy next door which no-one in the Grenfell area wanted because it took over all our precious green space, destroying Lancaster Green, and was a massive overdevelopment of the site

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the reply. Just as I thought. I was hoping that our Environmental Health department will advise people in the area about asbestos etc but I guess contacting them would be pointless since they didn't take any notice when they were informed of white powders on the roads in Earls Court building site.

      "In the initial stages of extinguishing a fire the burning asbestos may become damaged to the point where the fibers are easily released into the air. Once exposed into the air, it is easy to breathe it, where it becomes lodged in tiny sacs lining organs, and the victim is not able to breath or cough them out."

      Delete
    3. HSE hid the report on Earls Court maybe something our new MP could cast her eye over.

      Delete
  8. "Its all their fault" crops up time and again in this blog. This is the result of Socialist failure. The sooner people take responsibility for our own lives the better. Stop relying on others and blaming others and feeling entitled to hand outs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Being told to stay in your home when there is fire after 2009 Camberwell fire claimed six lives including children. If you're so brave put your real name 10:20; your repellent.

      You're a great advert for voting labour!

      Delete
    2. When we put ourselves in the hands of bureaucrats (TMO in this case) who themselves are answerable to plutocrats (the K&C Council in this case) then an important part of society (the working class in this case) prostrates itself at the feet of administrators wield power with an attitude of "I could not care less". This practice saps the energy of society and builds a Soviet style system that inevitably collapses under the weight of its inefficiency and hopelessness.

      It takes events like Grenfell Tower to deliver a wake up call and create an awareness that the system is rotten. Let us not waste the lesson.

      Grenfell Tower is of course an event of tragic dimensions that requires a huge response of sympathy, support and help. My impression is that this is happening.

      Of course there will be finger pointing, arse covering, and scapegoats. If things do not change, Grenfell Tower will merely join a growing list of similar events and will be forgotten and replaced by the next cock up. With more hand wringing, wall to wall television coverage and pontificators.

      Delete
    3. We can't let the event to be added to the long list of forgotten events. This is our chance and it's been long and hard coming. We must seize the opportunity.

      "people are planning a rally in Westminster on Friday to call for justice for those caught up in the Grenfell Tower fire. A Facebook event, Justice for Grenfell!, has been listed as taking place at 6pm on Friday outside the Department for Communities and Local Government in Marsham Street, with more than 1,000 people said to be attending."

      Delete
  9. Still no word from Paget-Brown on Twitter. Incredible.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Corporate Manslaughter Charge. Who are the deserving candidates? I'd assume not just one but few?

    Nick Paget-Brown refuses to guarantee Grenfell Tower families will not be replaced by rich!

    https://www.channel4.com/news/interview-nick-paget-brown-leader-of-kensington-and-chelsea-council

    ReplyDelete
  11. TMO housed a 90 year old and his disabled son on the 17th floor. The treatment is consistent, the way the customer service staff and 'always away from her desk' housing officer treat you. So caring and considerate.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Do you think the residents of the high-rise block should have a key to access the roof in case of an emergency like this? A helicopter could have hoisted some people from the top floors. TMO would probably say it's H&S issue that they can't.

    ReplyDelete
  13. What did EDC and the Labour Ward Councillors do to address residents concerns about safety? EDC was on the board of the TMO and on the Scrutiny Committee. Champagne Socialist and holier than thou with it.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The TMO knowingly ignore safety fears expressed by the London Fire Brigade on other RBKC estates.

    ReplyDelete
  15. An estate full of vulnerable and elderly residents was left without the required fire safety works for six years.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Criminal Negligence !!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. The fire brigade served a legal notice.

    ReplyDelete
  18. The Labour MP David Lammy has called the Grenfell Tower blaze “corporate manslaughter”.

    Scotland Yard opens criminal investigation into tragedy

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2017/jun/15/london-fire-17-confirmed-dead-as-police-expect-more-fatalities-after-tower-block-blaze-latest

    ReplyDelete
  19. "Jeremy Corbyn leads calls to house Grenfell Tower victims in luxury Kensington homes."

    There are many empty places in our borough right now but Buckingham Palace is said to have 775 rooms. Paid by the tax payers. Plenty of rooms and I'd imagine it meets the H&S standard Jeremy.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Dear Mr Robert Black,
    Quite often you forgot about us (the tenants) but when you take up your residence in Wandsworth or Wormwood Scrub, we won't forget about you or the epic event which leaves a big mark in the history. We will visit and bring you supplies, even the TMO Link magazine to keep you updated on your colleagues. Yours truly...

    ReplyDelete
  21. What can we do? End Tenant Management16 June 2017 at 16:09

    Get rid of the RBKC "Borough-wide" Tenant Management Organisation.

    Tenant Management was introduced in 1996 by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. Since then it has been an unmitigated disaster. It is a litany of incompetence, corruption and unequal power struggles between Councillors, TMO Executives and those who pay the rent. The bullying by the TMO of residents at Grenfall Tower has resulted in unsuitable works being carried out works resulting in many residents paying with their lives.

    IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY. If you are a Council tenant or a leaseholder join the TMO immediately. When you receive your voting paper for next AGM of the TMO vote to end the management agreement between RBK&C and the TMO.

    Show the TMO who is boss - VOTE AGAINST TENANT MANAGEMENT.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Residents should think more about what they are repealing than what they are getting.16 June 2017 at 16:16

      Well said 16.09. Get rid of the TMO. Power to tenants.

      Delete
  22. Has anyone at the TMO been suspended for specifying major works that turned Grenfall Tower in to a fire trap? Robert Black and his team are supposed to be property management professionals. They ought have known that the cladding materials they specified for the major works at Grenfell Tower are prohibited in the United States of America because of the serious risk of fire that their use presents. It is unbelievable for the TMO to go ahead and specify using materials on a tower block that create a death trap just because the law in this country permits their use.

    I bumped in to Sadiq Kahn at Kensington Town Hall yesterday when I popped in to sign the condolence book. He will make sure that right is done.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Shane has a point. It is important that those involved in specifying the major works do not have access to any papers that may help the Enquiry get to the truth. I have tried to obtain historic information and papers from the TMO and been advised that the papers could not be found.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Then we will need to act fast to demand suspension of the key staff before they destroy paper works. If they can hide financial details from the auditor, it is very likely that they will try to sabotage the investigation. Every invoices has to be kept as a record for HMRC if it's a LTD company, letters and emails etc can be questionable. But we are not talking about decades ago. The regeneration talk must have only started a few years back?

      Delete
  24. According to Black, TMO do listen. *smh*
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4602442/Action-group-raised-concerns-fire-four-years-ago.html#v-3563791939167960066

    ReplyDelete
  25. Empty houses in K&C. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4612036/Sprawling-abandoned-mansions-Grenfell-Tower-s-doorstep.html?mwv_rm=als1

    ReplyDelete
  26. The victims only get £10 per day? And this...
    https://twitter.com/OmzBk/status/876273354608660481

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Business as usual then. Disgusting.

      Delete
  27. Plastic backing vs metal backing fridge fire test
    In the video description, metal backed firdge extinguished itself after 20 mins.

    https://youtu.be/Pvko16hqJ7g

    ReplyDelete
  28. I was wondering how long the 'other' story of illegal immigration and landlord profiteering would take to emerge. Not to put too fine a point on it, but looking at some of the 'tenants' interviewed in the wake of this terrible event, how did they manage to grab themselves council flats when there is an acute housing shortage? Now we know. Shame on those who let their council flats illegally. No way should they be given new accommodation. They obviously didn't need it so why should they be re-housed at public expense? Re-house those affected and prosecute the others.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are your responsibility. Anyone posting inappropriate comments shall have their comment removed and will be banned from posting in future. Your IP address may also be recorded and reported. Persistent abuse shall mean comments will be severely restricted in future.