It is very simple.
No Cabinet member at the time of the Grenfell tragedy should be part of the current leadership team.
In fact, any leadership team member associated with Grenfell should have stood aside years ago.
It's called 'collective responsibility'.
There are sufficient well-qualified Leadership team members capable of taking over the reins.
A reader comments...
Sir Martin Moore Bick referred to the Memoli Report which, amongst other things, looked in to the TMO's relationship with Council tenants. (the report Robert Black claims not to have seen!)
Maria Memoli made reference to the "them and us" culture between TMO staff and tenants in 2009. The TMO treated Grenfell tenants disgracefully up until the fire in 2017 just as it had done with all of its tenants since the year dot. Thanks to Memoli, the situation was put on record in 2009. Sir Martin stated that the TMO had failed in allowing relations with tenants to deteriorate to this extent.
In 2009, the TMO had an opportunity to address this matter and improve. It did not do so.
The following councillors were on the TMO Board in 2009 and were there to protect the Council's interests. This is what each of them did about the relations between the TMO and tenants:-
In 2017, Cllr. Emma Dent Coad told BBC Radio London, there was nothing an opposition councillor could do. She should resign her seat in St. Helen's Ward. (Recording of that interview is available.)
Elizabeth Campbell did nothing and should now hang her head in shame and resign her seat on the Council. She always seemed to look down on the propertyless who paid rent to the Council.
Maighread Condon did nothing. She no longer serves the Council.
Councillor Quentin Marshall did nothing. He tried to cover up a complaint made by Grenfell tenants at a Council Committee that he chaired. Thanks to Councillor Mackover the cover up did not wash. Marshall should now resign his seat on the Council.
Sir Martin Moore Bick referred to the Memoli Report which, amongst other things, looked in to the TMO's relationship with Council tenants.
ReplyDeleteMaria Memoli made reference to the "them and us" culture between TMO staff and tenants in 2009. The TMO treated Grenfell tenants disgracefully up until the fire in 2017 just as it had done with all of its tenants since the year dot. Thanks to Memoli, the situation was put on record in 2009. Sir Martin stated that the TMO had failed in allowing relations with tenants to deteriorate to this extent.
In 2009, the TMO had an opportunity to address this matter and improve. It did not do so.
The following councillors were on the TMO Board in 2009 and were there to protect the Council's interests. This is what each of them did about the relations between the TMO and tenants:-
In 2017, Cllr. Emma Dent Coad told BBC Radio London, there was nothing an opposition councillor could do. She should resign her seat in St. Helen's Ward. (Recording of that interview is available.)
Elizabeth Campbell did nothing and should now hang her head in shame and resign her seat on the Council. She always seemed to look down on the propertyless who paid rent to the Council.
Maighread Condon did nothing. She no longer serves the Council.
Councillor Quentin Marshall did nothing. He tried to cover up a complaint made by Grenfell tenants at a Council Committee that he chaired. Thanks to Councillor Mackover the cover up did not wash. He should now resign his seat on the Council.
Robert Black also told the Inquiry that he did not think the Council were impressed with the Memoli Report. That might explain the gutless and inadequate response from Tory Councillors to the Memoli Report.
DeleteBut what did Labour Councillors do to show up the TMO armed with simple sword of truth courtesy of Maria Memoli?
Sweet FA, that's what they did. Sweet Fanny Adams!
Black should have been shafted when his six monthly probationary period was up at the TMO.
DeleteI knew that he would not make it in that job and I was right. He admitted to the Inquiry that he did not read (every word of) the Memoli Report and did not recall ever seeing it. He was clearly wrong for that job. But Ms Rawlings knew best and kept Black on in the job without consulting the TMO's Board.
What did the Council Nominated Board Members do about the relationship between the TMO and its tenants which, as Sir Martin said, was the salient point in Maria Memoli's Report?
Nothing!
The Inquiry's Report highlighted the toxic and intolerant attitude taken by senior officials of the TMO to Mr Eddie Dafarn of various Grenfell Community Groups.
If Emma Dent Coad, Maighread Condon Simmonds, Quentin Marshall and Elizabeth Campbell, in their roles as Non Executive Directors of the TMO, had taken purposeful action with Robert Black about the failings of the TMO in developing and maintaining decent working relations with tenants, Mr Eddie Dafarn would not have been sidelined by them just because they found him difficult and disliked him. The Inquiry Report pays tribute to Eddie being highly intelligent, something that was in short supply at the TMO. Relations between the TMO and Eddie Dafarn were toxic because he disagreed with the TMO's refurbishment plans for Grenfell. If the points he made were heeded, the disaster would have been avoided.
Avoided? That's right the Grenfell disaster could have been avoided.
DeleteI wrote to Emma about the TMO when she was on the TMO Board. She did not reply.
DeleteRobert Black, Chief Executive of the TMO, told the Grenfell Inquiry he did not recall seeing a copy of the Memoli Report. A likely story.
ReplyDeleteThe Memoli Report's publication was suppressed until the day after the first AGM of the TMO which Robert Black attended when he started at the TMO. The Council did not want the proles asking questions of the new Chief Executive at the TMO AGM.
Robert Black responding to the Memoli Report in 2009 stated in the local press,
..........We have to rebuild confidence with the people who have lost trust in us.
Just what did Black think he was doing commenting in the press on a Report that he had not seen never mind read.
No wonder the TMO was the worst it had ever been under Black, the former art student from Aberdeen.
The Inquiry chair says the local council's tenant management organisation (TMO) was "badly run" and "failed" to respond to criticisms of its treatment of residents, which were contained in independent reports in 2009.
ReplyDeleteMoore-Bick says relations between the TMO and residents were marked by "distrust" and "bitter confrontation" before the disaster.
For relations to "deteriorate" to such an extent reflects a "serious failure" on its part to observe its basic responsibilities, he adds.
Source: The Guardian.
Published: Wednesday 4 September 2024
ReplyDeleteFollowing the publication of the Grenfell Inquiry’s phase two report on Wednesday 4 September 2024, Kensington and Chelsea Council Leader Cllr Elizabeth Campbell has has written an open letter to the bereaved and survivors of Grenfell.
Open letter to bereaved and survivors of Grenfell from Cllr Elizabeth Campbell, Leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council
Today is a day for you, the residents and families of Grenfell. Those who survived and those who lost loved ones in the most horrific circumstances imaginable.
On behalf of the Council, I apologise unreservedly and with all my heart to you, and to the local community, for our failure to listen to residents and to protect them. Put simply, we could, and should, have done more to keep people safe in their homes and to care for all of our residents in the aftermath of the fire.
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has laid bare the chain of events that led to that night. It shows how you were let down by the systems and people responsible for protecting you and your families. It shows – beyond doubt – that this Council failed the residents of Grenfell Tower and the 72 people, including 18 children, who died.
You have had to wait a long time for answers, and I hope the publication of this report is an important step forward in the ongoing search for justice. We fully accept the findings, which are a withering critique of a system broken from top to bottom. It is crystal clear – profits were put before people, clear warning signs were ignored, and Grenfell was wholly avoidable, with failure at every single level.
The Council’s role will never be diluted by the large number of companies and organisations involved. We failed to keep people safe before and during the refurbishment and we failed to treat people with humanity and care in the aftermath. As a public authority, our primary concern should always be our residents and never our own reputation. The organisation I lead owes it to every single person who lost their lives to learn the lessons, change, and improve.
I know that seeing visible and tangible change is of utmost importance to you. I am grateful to all the bereaved, survivors and residents who are working with us to make change happen, showing us what we need to do differently, challenging us on progress and holding us to account for what we have not yet done. We will never forget that Grenfell happened here, on our watch, and we must work with our residents to build a local legacy here at the Council.
We will learn from every single criticism in the report. We will take time to study it further in detail, listen to the reflections from our communities, and publish a full and formal response in the Autumn.
Finally, we know this is not an ending point, justice is still to be served. The Inquiry report creates urgent impetus for change – here at the Council, and no doubt nationally too. Grenfell can never be allowed to happen again.
Cllr Elizabeth Campbell
Leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council
At least Elizabeth Campbell did not post on X that she had "six media interviews lined up from 06.30am today." Her tone is not seeking to exploit the most ghastly tragedy imaginable for political objectives unlike some.
DeleteEDC announcing 6 media interviews from 06.30am on the day that the Grenfell Inquiry reports show that she has a dark, sinister, side. Most people would not promote their own involvement in something like this and have a sense of decency. She has very low standards.
DeleteElizabeth Campbell says: “Today is a day for you” … pass the sick bag.
DeleteThe Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea failed its community when it was needed most.
Grenfell deaths “ALL AVOIDABLE,” says inquiry.
DeleteRBKC: “Certain aspects of the response demonstrated a marked lack of respect for human decency and dignity…”
DeleteElizabeth Campbell, Gerard Hargreaves and Catherine Faulks were councillors in Cabinet roles in the period before the fire. They fully supported the Leader Nicholas Paget-Brown and Deputy Leader Rock Feilding-Mellen. We are way past the time they all should have gone.
Delete21.53 You say "pass the sick bag." I vomited when I saw EDC parading Jeremy Corbyn around the area of Grenfell Tower in the run up to election day. An inadequate and pitiful woman living her political life vicariously through Jeremy Corbyn.
DeleteShe only got 1,800 votes. Reform got more votes than she did. I don't know why the media are giving a twice defeated former MP a voice now.
One resident was so frustrated that he predicted ‘only a serious fire’ resulting in a ‘serious loss of life’ would make the council pay attention. The councilor in charge of housing, Rock Feilding-Mellen, called him a ‘fantasist.’
DeleteI never knew that, 20.16.
DeleteI am gobsmacked!
I am now feeling very cold and unnerved.
Gobsmacked!
DeleteThree of the reports findings
ReplyDelete1. The report says the architects Studio E, the builders Rydon and Harley Facades, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s building control department all bear responsibility for the fire.
2. The Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation was directly in charge of the refurbishment. It was appointed by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to run its council housing stock. Its chief executive, Robert Black, established a “pattern of concealment … in relation to fire safety matters” and the TMO “treated the demands of managing fire safety as an inconvenience”. The inquiry established that the landlord’s “initial motive for cladding Grenfell Tower was to improve its physical appearance and to prevent it looking like a poor relation” to a building next door. Any suggestion it was to improve energy efficiency came later. The inquiry detailed a relentless focus on cost.
3. In many cases, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea failed to provide adequate emergency accommodation. The arrangements for obtaining food at some hotels made some people “feel like refugees”.
Surely, Black should be prosecuted for establishing what the Inquiry described as "A pattern of concealment in relation to fire safety matters." I think lawyers at the CPS should be able to come up with a charge of some sort.
DeleteMisconduct in a Public Office comes to mind. Before anyone says that Robert Black was not a Public Officer, Lord Justice Leveson gave consideration to this very point in the case of
Mitchell [2014] EWCA Crim 318. In Mitchell, the Court of Appeal had to decide whether an ambulance paramedic was "a public officer." Lord Justice Leveson stated that the correct approach was to ask three questions:
“First, what was the position held?
Second, what is the nature of the duties undertaken by the employee or officer in that position?
Third, does the fulfilment of those duties represent the fulfilment of one of the responsibilities of government such that the public have a significant interest in the discharge of the duty which is additional to or beyond an interest in anyone who might be directly affected by a serious failure in the performance of that duty? If the answer to this last question is "yes", the relevant employee or officer is acting as a public officer; if "no", he or she is not acting as a public officer.”
Those responsible who have not yet resigned their council seats are wicked and have no moral compass. How can Councillors stand in front of the public and act like they had nothing to do with the failure of the chain of accountability. Shame on you all. Shame on Emma Dent Coad for not accepting that she was part of the problem and now flaunts round North Kensington blaming everyone but herself. Shame on all your houses.
ReplyDeleteEmma Dent Coad was part of the problem at the TMO. She was not part of the solution. She made a serious error of judgement with the way she accepted and tolerated the excesses of the TMO.
DeleteEmma Dent Coad knew of the "incompetence," misery and suffering that the TMO caused and she unconditionally supported the tenant mismanagement organisation it when she was on its Board. She fooled no one with her being all for the underdog (tenant) routine.
DeleteHow dare she do the high and mighty now demanding accountability from someone!
Well let us start with her and make light work of her putting her twopence worth in.
If someone is murdered and you are present at the time, then you are just as culpable as the person holding the knife. How can any of those in positions of authority give interviews effectively claiming 'it wasn't me' and then empathising with those who lost friends and relatives. Just what kind of representatives are they.
ReplyDeleteRemember when Julie Mills sent out a questionnaire asking residents to rate importance of Grenfell and the importance of support to victims of Grenfell on a scale of 0 to 10. Appalling
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Campbell was a member of the Cabinet at the time of Grenfell and now leader of the successor, less pompously named, Leadership Team. She with Cllr Faulks are the links to the tragedy and leave the Leadership Team and probably the Council. The same applies to all councillors directly involved.
ReplyDeleteThere are many who sre rightly criticised in today's Grenfell report but the sheer brass neck of Emma Dent Coad, TMO Board Member and local Councillor, opining on the BBC about how somebody, obviously not her, needs to be held accountable takes some beating.
ReplyDeleteThat does take some beating, 19.24.
DeleteThe first time that odious woman put her head above the parapet when it came to the TMO was, after the fire, on the floor of the commons. She knew better than anyone what was wrong with the TMO but only stood up to be counted when the building went up. She was indignant that Moore Bick knocked back her core participant application.
Joe Powell MP will take time to read the report and respond appropriately with decency and dignity.
Delete“We know who is responsible and those people must be called out,” says Emma Dent Coad.
DeleteIf Emma Dent Coad were any good, she would call out those responsible. By saying that, she is trying to shift attention from herself. She did nothing useful on the TMO Board even though she knew how bad things were. She should have acted between 2008 and 2012 - she has had her chance over that four years and blew it.
DeleteFTHN: EDC fact check https://fromthehornetsnest.blogspot.com/2017/08/false-accusation-re-grenfella-factcheck.html?m=1
DeleteJust looked at the link you provided, 13.42.
DeleteDent Coad's fact check and denials to the Dame in 2017 were read and commented on by 149 hornets.
13:42 - that old post you’ve linked to is exactly why this joke of a blog can’t be taken seriously.
DeleteIn 2017, on this blog, Emma Dent Coad offered a perfectly reasonable rebuttal of false accusations linking her to the decision making on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment. Scroll down on that post and by the third comment it descends immediately into whether her kids went to state or private school and other completely irrelevant stuff. Her explanation was clear and everything above board but the people here have an unhealthy and very weird obsession with her.
According to the weirdos who roam this blog, if Emma couldn’t get elected to Parliament this year she would become “old news”. Everyone got their wish and yet they still continue to obsess over her every little move.
Whether you like it or not, she was the elected MP at the time of the fire and dealt directly with survivors afterwards (note Joe Powell was nowhere to be seen at that point). It is perfectly normal that she would be interviewed this week - there are normal people who want to hear her views.
She is not to blame for what happened at Grenfell, she did not make any decisions about the refurbishment or cladding or procurement. VERY early on in the process (2012 - 5 years before the fire) she made ONE remark that it was positive news that the Tower would soon be refurbished and hopefully residents would be living in improved conditions. Others who were at the meeting (including the other Labour councillors) agreed with her. She then left the TMO and had no legitimate reason to be involved in something that was not in her ward.
Other individuals (including some of the ones the people on here love to fawn over) were more closely linked throughout yet nobody on FTHN ever seems to talk about them.
Before you lunatics try and justify your bullshit, I am NOT Emma. I only lament what has happened to this once very useful blog. It has turned into an EDC hate fest. It’s ok to point out someone’s misgivings but no other person has been talked about on here more than her (including some very trivial and pathetic guff) and it all stems from a few sad, bitter old men who have an unnerving preoccupation with Emma.
I think Elizabeth Campbell's letter is admirable, fitting and dignified. I never thought that I would say that but, credit where credit is due.
DeleteI am sure she will resign from the Council when she thinks about her personal failure in 2009 to make sure that the TMO treated tenants decently following Maria Memoli's Report. If the TMO had changed back then, Grenfell would have been avoided because tenants with concerns would have been listened to. I am very sad and depressed - Grenfell is nothing to do with me.
Sir Martin Moore Bick never took the view that "lunatics" contribute to From the Hornet's Nest. On the contrary, he said that this blog was "a breath of fresh air."
Delete18.34. You have missed the point. Your comments about Emma's involvement in the refurbishment decisions of Grenfell Tower have been noted. They are a smokescreen which clouds the real issue emerging from the Inquiry.
Delete1. Sir Martin Moore Bick referred to the Memoli Report in 2009 and, in particular, the problematic relationship that the TMO had with tenants in 2009.
2. Sir Martin correlates the TMO's failure to deal with its problematic relationship with tenants in 2009 and the way in which Grenfell Tower tenants were later treated over the refurbishment works.
3. It should be cause for grave concern that all of the Council appointed Directors of the TMO failed to do anything about this aspect of the Memoli Report.
4. Robert Black, Chief Executive of the TMO, could not recall reading the Report or even seeing it and suggested that the Council was unimpressed by it. Presumably, Councillors on the TMO Board were similarly unimpressed which is why they did nothing about the TMO's dreadful relationship with tenants.
3. Sir Martin blamed the TMO for failing to address its problems with tenants in 2009. Emma, Maighread, Elizabeth and Quentin are, therefore, collectively blameworthy for the failure that Sir Martin highlighted in the press conference on Wednesday. This failure is set out in detail in the Report.
It follows that the Councillors on the TMO Board, as well as the less capable Resident Members of the TMO Board, were duty bound to ensure that the TMO put in place measures in 2009 so that tenants were not bullied and were treated decently. They failed to do so and failed for years, thereafter, to monitor the relationship with tenants.
The TMO is no more and the Resident Board Members are long gone.
Three of the four Councillors who served on the TMO Board in 2009 are still serving as elected members of the Council today. They are Elizabeth Campbell, Quentin Marshall and Emma Dent Coad. They ought to resign from the Council. It is the honourable thing for each of them to do.
I think Joe Powell MP needs to address this issue at the highest level with the Council.
18.34. Brilliant. The Councillors mentioned are culpable.
DeleteWill they resign?
Only a sociopath would refuse to accept responsibility after a judicial inquiry established what it did.
DeleteJust after the Grenfell Tower fire in 20O1, Emma Dent Coad was interviewed on BBC Radio by Vanessa Feltz about her membership of the TMO Board.
DeleteThe first thing she made clear was that she "had not been on the TMO since 2012."
She went on to talk about her participation on the TMO Board up until 2012. She said, "There was nothing an opposition Councillor could do" which is patent nonsense and she knows it.
She then referred to the "trolling" she experienced on-line in the aftermath of the fire.
By her own admission Emma did "nothing" about improving relations between the TMO and tenants between 2009 and 2012. Sir Martin Moore Bick was damming about the TMO's failure to deal with "deteriorating relations" with tenants this in his report. This failure must not be passed over because it allowed the TMO to be especially toxic with Grenfell's tenants over the refurbishment works. Emma decided to do nothing and she should now do the right thing and RESIGN for that mistake.
Emma's position as a Councillor is now untenable owing to her failure to do anything as Non- Executive Director of the TMO, in the way that Sir Martin thought sensible, for the three years period after Maria Memoli delivered up her Report.
Elizabeth, Quentin and Emma are all bang to rights.
Resignations - please.
18.34 is trying to turn Emma Dent Coad in to a victim.
DeleteNow don't forget,
.............. THE VICTIMS ARE the 72 people who perished in the Grenfell Fire Tower.
Emma Dent Coad, Elizabeth Campbell, and Quentin Marshall lacked the diligence, drive and tenacity to address TMO malfeasance when they were charged with that very task in 2009. Now don't forget, in 2009, they were all Council Appointed Directors of the TMO. They served on the TMO Board to protect the Council's interests. It was not in the Council's interests for the TMO to bully and intimidate Council tenants and seriously affect people's mental health.
It is not a good idea to widen an argument when you are not doing so well 18.34.
The following councillors must all resign from the council and stand down immediately:
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Campbell
Kim Taylor-Smith
Gerard Hargreaves
Catherine Faulks
David Lindsay
Will Pascall
Marie Therese-Rossi
Emma Will
Mary Weale
If these councillors had still been in post they should also have been made to resign:
Robert Atkinson
Judith Blakeman
Robert Thompson
Ian Henderson
The following former councillors must be imprisoned immediately:
Nick Paget-Brown
Rock Fielding Mellon
Timothy Coleridge
Maighread Condon-Simmonds
Sof McVeigh must now be made leader of the council. She has the skills to lead a strong team and has demonstrated that she is capable of actually listening and responding astutely to the needs of residents.
Where is Robert Black and why is he not in prison, his
Deletegenerous pension and all his salaries returned and his assets confiscated? Also the same applies to all the others involved. Those huge wages and pensions must be returned. All leaseholders in K&C now pay very high insurance premiums on their properties because of these incompetent fools, we suffer because of them and all the victims' relatives are
distraught because of these arrogant idiots.
Leaseholders have been fleeced for their insurance policy contributions since the fire.
Delete11.17 would have thought Marwan Elnagi would feature on your list since he sits for the Notting Dale Grenfell council ward but hardly ever does case work, prioritises his block where he's RA chair above everywhere else in his ward and he made a total balls up of chairing housing, health and social care as well as the Grenfell scrutiny committees.
DeleteDid 11:17 just chuck in a few councillors they
Deletehave a personal grudge against? Can't think of any reason why Ian Henderson, someone who helped bereaved residents before during and after he was councillor, and someone who had nothing to do with TMO or council oversight is included on such a list.
I, one hundred percent, agree. Henderson is not to blame.
Delete20.44 Leaseholders are essentially being punished for the TMO's neglect & incompetence over years & years. Paying to fix refurbish & make safe properties these days. The thing that troubles me about Black is who put such an under qualified incompetent man in the top job? Not standing up for him but I think there's more to it than just this one guy, although totally agree that his sizeable assets and pension ought to be confiscated. Someone should do a list of all the TMO managers responsible & I hope all the blogs name & shame them. Also what about the 'mastermind' guy at RBKC who was supposed to be working with TMO & have a record & oversight of all the TMO properties over that time? Why wasn't he at inquiry?
Delete18.20. I suspect that list of Councillors was written by Ms. Dent Coad or one of her cronies. Notice that her name is conspicuously absent from the list.
DeleteI know she wanted to blame the "bastard Tories" but that will not work because she has found herself in a situation of criticism and blameworthiness tainted by doing nothing about the Memoli Report over the three year period that she was on the TMO.
Nice one.
DeleteList all TMO managers involved. Name and shame them.
I'll start the list with:-
Peter Maddison
Sasha Jevans
Why is Coad not on the list?
ReplyDeleteAngela Rayner backs prosecutions for those responsible for Grenfell Tower fire. DPM wants the Crown Prosecution Service and Met police to act ‘as quickly as possible’.
DeleteCoad wrote the list. Henderson was not even on the Council when the fire happened. We must be vigilant that those who sat on the TMO , like Emma Debt Coad are made to pay for their role in allowing this tragedy to happen .
Delete"This tragedy should never have happened." Coad, Marshall and Campbell out, NOW.
DeleteEDC was out of her depth on the TMO.
ReplyDeleteShe disliked Juliet and Reg because they were Tories. If she had made the same effort to work with them constructively that she made to get in with Diane Abbott MP, she might have made a better job of being on the TMO. The TMO was not the
place for left wing factionalism. Emma is better educated than most on the TMO and she could have made a big difference. It is a pity that she has a difficult personality.
@ 17.05. Factionalism?
ReplyDeleteEmma could not get on with Labour's Judith Blakeman.
She had no difficulty seeking accommodations with Corbyn, Long Bailey, Burgon, McDonnell and a number of Momentum supporters.
That is because Judith Blakeman is a very old fashioned type of person. She can be bitter and cold at times, and rarely ever smiles. She’s ‘very difficult’ for anyone to get along with at the best of times. Her mindset seems to be stuck somewhere between the 1880s and 1940s.
DeleteCllr. Quentin Marshall was a TMO Board Member when the Memoli Report was published by the Council outlining the serious situation of bad relations between the TMO and tenants.
DeleteMarshall did noting to ensure that relations with tenants improved.
Marshall later served on a Committee of the Council and he was reminded, again, of how bad things were between the TMO and tenants. At that time, he was confronted with details of the toxic way that Grenfell tenants were treated by the TMO. Thanks to the tenants' hero, Councillor Sam Mackover, the matter was not buried in the way that Marshall had hoped.
Solicitors letters were sent by the TMO to intimidate Grenfell Activists. Scandalous!
Councillor Marshall's position as serving councillor is now untenable.
I do not recognise Judith Blakeman in the terms described by 13.16.
DeleteCouncillors Campbell, Marshall and Dent Coad must have known that it is not interests of any local authority landlord to have disgruntled tenants or a housing management contractor who fosters destructive and injurious relations with tenants.
DeleteWhy didn't they act? If they had acted, Grenfell would have been avoided. Grenfell tenants would have been listened to.
Their failure to resign shows they do not have a shred of decency. Dizzy Lizzie's letter is all very fine but actions speak louder than words.
DeleteThe inquiry was highly critical of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council’s failings that contributed to the disaster occurring in the first place, repeatedly ignoring tenants’ concerns and comprehensively letting survivors down. Do you remember a judge had to order the council to allow media into Grenfell Tower meeting? https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/29/grenfell-survivors-barred-from-council-meeting-about-fire
ReplyDeleteI personally expressed concerns to my Ward Councillors over the years - to Merrrick Cockell and Priscilla Fraser.
DeleteCllrs in Cabinet roles in the period before the fire inc:
ReplyDelete* Elizabeth Campbell
* Gerard Hargreaves
* Catherine Faulks
They won't resign. Sir Martin referred to "greed." He had no idea just how greedy these councillors are about their generous stipends. Lizzie gets a fortune and Emma did very well when she was Leader of the Opposition Group on the Council. The allowance for doing as little as possible as an ordinary councillor is money for old rope. Nice work if you can get it.
DeleteIt is a pity that Emma Dent Coad first vented her racist spleen on Shaun Bailey in 2010. She called him a "token ghetto boy" and drew a picture of him strung up. Vicious, wicked and nasty!
ReplyDeleteInstead, she could have worked with the TMO's Robert Black to make sure that the hostile culture to tenants at the TMO was stopped. This would have made a massive difference to the many who complained to her about it when she was on the TMO between 2008 and 2012!
I bet she wishes that she never said during the General Election campaign, in 2024, that she could represent people with housing problems in the vicinity of Grenfell because she was "one of them."
If Emma had acted responsibly, the TMO might have changed post Memoli. The Grenfell fire could have been avoided.
If I were Emma Dent Coad, Elizabeth Campbell or Quentin Marshall, I don't think I would set foot outside the front door ever again. I would be racked with so much guilt and shame.
DeleteEmma Dent Coad was very irritated that the Inquiry Report took so long to be published. She wanted it out before the General Election convinced that it would be the Tories' fault. She would then be able to do her "Bastard Tory" routine. Be careful what you wish for, Emma. You did not anticipate Sir Martin apportioning blame to those who failed to act on the Memoli Report. It should have been presented to you as a Director of the TMO. If this did not happen, why did you fail to get a copy of it and read it?
I never understood why Emma had all those media interviews lined up on the day of the Report's publication, the first 06.30am. She was only the MP for Kensington for five days when the fire broke out. I bet she will be less enthusiastic about going on the tele now to talk about it.
I wonder if those who donated a total of £ 58,000 to Emma's election fighting fund, via two on-line platforms, would stump up for her now.
All of the TMO's Board Members, except Emma Dent Coad, Elizabeth Campbell and Quentin Marshall, are out of public life in Kensington and Chelsea. It is high time that these three, poor strugglers, accepted responsibility and resigned.
Henderson was a star! Come back Ian, we all miss you.
She was only the MP for five days when the fire happened but remained the MP for 2.5 years after and helped hundreds of residents (both from Grenfell and the surrounding area) manage the pile of shit that was thrown at them by the council in the aftermath. Why was Joe Powell being interviewed this week? He’s only been the MP for 2 months and was completely invisible in North Kensington for over five years after the fire took place.
Delete22.53 Because, Emma, Joe is now our MP. Just like you were our MP for five days before the fire which gave you the opportunity to comment in 2017.
DeleteIt is a pity that you did not make sure the toxic culture at the TMO ceased in 2009. If you had done so the Grenfell fire would have been "avoided."
If you had done the right thing, from 2009 to 2012, and made sure the bullying of tenants stopped, you would not have had to work so hard after the Grenfell fire, in they way you describe, because Grenfell tenants would have been listened to in 2013 and 2014 during the so called refurbishment "discussions" if you can call them that.
You made a very serious mistake by doing nothing about the poisonous culture at the TMO when you had the chance to make a stand when you were a Director of the TMO in 2009, in 2010, in 2011 and in 2012. Elizabeth Campbell and Quentin Marshall are in this with you.
EDC was a deeply divisive MP just like she is a deeply divisive councillor. Her bid to make a return as MP failed big time as she lost her deposit. Elections are long over 22.53 you need to get over it. Like it or not Joe Powell won & EDC has had her political day.
DeleteI do not understand why Emma advertised on her X account the six media interviews that she was giving on day that the Inquiry published its Report. Sounds like she worked hard to get those interviews.
DeleteOn the day of the fire, Emma was on the media all of the time. She had only been our MP for five days. I never thought it strange that her predecessor who had represented Kensington for a few years was not on the news instead. Emma never mentioned that she had been a Director of the TMO during any of those interviews just after the fire. That came out about a week later after I sent Sky News a copy of the Memoli Report.
Joe Powell MP needs to come out and DEMAND the resignation, failing which the removal, of Coad, Campbell and Marshall from the Council.
DeleteCouncillor Rock Feilding Mellen resigned after the Grenfell Tower fire. Emma crowed about the Tories falling from grace after the fire! People who live in glasshouses should throw stones, Emma.
DeleteProtesters disgracefully demonstrated outside the Feilding Mellen's home after the fire. He and his family had to flee to a place of safety. His children must have been terrified by this mob rule.
Emma Dent Coad, the Aristocratic, then Labour MP for Kensington, is reported to have cycled by whilst the demonstration was taking place. Anyone who knows her character will know just how much she enjoyed doing that. I know she likes to be divisive but there is an appalling lack of maturity in her brand of left wing activism.
The Moore Bick Inquiry found the TMO culpable from 2009 onwards for failing to improve tenant relations. Emma, Elizabeth and Quentin share responsibility for their collective failure to remedy the toxic culture back in 2009.
72 people needlessly perished as a direct result of the TMO Board's dereliction of duty. .
Would Emma please confirm that she will be resigning for this dereliction of duty tomorrow?
I bet Emma now wishes that she did not enjoy the demonstration outside the Feilding Mellen's home, in 2017, quite so much!
O1.47. Joe,
DeleteCoad will never accept that she had her "political day." The girl has an ego. It is in her Trotskyite/ Corbynistic DNA (or however she defines her political being these days) to snipe at whoever knocked her in to cock hats. At the last election that was you. It is unfortunate that she seems to think that no one does anything better than she does but, she is "divisive" and crap at politics.
It is just as well that Labour banned her from standing. She would have defied Starmer, over the Child Benefit cap, and defected straight over the floor of the House to Corbyn. If she had been the Labour candidate at the GE, she have shown no loyalty. She would have spent the money donated by the Unions for her election campaign and turned "turncoat."
Looking forward to seeing how she spent the £58K that she raised. She said she would give her supporters a full account of every penny.
It would be best if these three left the Council quietly with dignity to void the humiliation of trying save oneself.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your service to the Council.
Wishing you everything you wish for yourselves.
Goodbye.
The Council charged the cost of the Memoli Report to the Housing Revenue Account. This means that the cost of this expensive report was defrayed amongst the Council's 7,000 tenants and 2,000 leaseholders.
ReplyDelete(Ms Memoli was a Solicitor and had to be paid for her time and skill. Solicitors do not come cheap particularly one with her skill.)
Ms Memoli had a full time Administrative Assistant (Ms Shand) and the services of a former Police Officer investigating the complex, and some times criminal matters, she discovered.
All very costly and this trio of useless politicians shelved it and did not check that Robert Black had even read it. And tenants and leaseholders footed the bill.
Just what did this Kensington and Chelsea trio of councillors think they were doing when they decided to do nothing about the most crucial aspect of the Report. The bullying and toxic way tenants were treated by the staff. 72 people died needlessly.
Why did they fail to ensure that relations with tenants improved? - Because they knew they had not improved and did not care. They received complaints from the many, not the few. Accountability means resignation or a forced removal from office.
The negligence of these Councillors is worse than any fraud or theft because that is only money but we are talking about 72 people perishing because of these Councillors took a could not care less attitude.
How do these councillors sleep at night?
Delete72 people died. Thousands of people lost relatives and friends in the Grenfell disaster. Hundreds lost their homes.
Evil triumphed at the TMO because of the excesses of power crazed bureaucrats.
This trio of councillors, Kensington's Finest, the ones trusted to make sure that everything was done properly at the TMO were lazy and did nothing. Greed and iniquity came to the fore.
These Councillors are culpable for doing nothing about the TMO in 2009.
DeleteThey need showing up in public The link between the Memoli Report in 2009 and the fire needs to be established in the minds of people throughout the Country.
These Councillors should be named and shamed on the floor of the House of Commons.
Which MP has got the guts to do it?
Colman or Powell?
Their constituents were made to suffer by the TMO and it is only right that those responsible for allowing the situation to become so bad now lose their elected offices.
Rishi Sunak would not want to save Elizabeth Campbell and Quentin Marshall.
Jeremy Corbyn would find it hard to defend Emma Dent Coad.
Not one word of remorse from these three.
DeleteShaft 'em
Now don't forget that EDC told BBC that there was "nothing an opposition councillor could do about the TMO." That being so, she cannot now turn round and say that she did X ,Y and Z. She did not ensure that systematic monitoring was in place to ensure the TMO under Robert Black mended its toxic ways. She knew how poisonous the TMO was, up until the eve of the fire, because tenants including Grenfell residents complained. She told Parliament that she knew the "culture", (ie the toxic bullying culture) at the TMO.
DeleteIs there any way we can find out how much money the Council spent on the Memoli Report in 2009?
DeleteIt was ignored by Robert Black who never read it, ignored by Councillors who according to Robert Black were "unimpressed" by it, and ignored by Councillors who were put on the TMO Board to protect the Council's interests. Campbell, Marshall and Coad, separately, individually and collectively, failed to address and stop the toxic bullying at the TMO. This toxic bullying adversely affected Grenfell residents and 72 people died. It affected everyone who ever dealt with the TMO and stood up to them
Can we use the Freedom of Information Act to get this info?
You can get this information under FOI. It might be an idea to ask for it using a non de plume. They still victimise tenants who means business. The
Deletebullying, singling people out, and victimisation of tenants is alive and well in the Directorate of Housing Management at RBKC today.
The bloody cheek of it. Expecting Council tenants to pay for a Report about the TMO's "bullying" of residents of by placing a charge on the account which funds repairs to Council flats.
Joe,
DeleteGrenfell voted you in. Now do your stuff for Grenfell. Getting rid of these Councillors is a must.
Dear Dame,
ReplyDeleteHow many views has this page had?
Hope Joe Powell MP raise this issue at Questions to the Prime Minister tomorrow,
ReplyDeleteHe could give a preamble about Sir Martin Moore Bick's comments and the Memoli Report in 2009, then go for them with,
Does the Prime Minister agree with me that the three Councillors still serving the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea today who were
(i) TMO Board members when the Memoli Report was published,
and
(ii) who failed to do anything about the TMO's toxic, bullying, culture, back in 2009 should now be shafted?
Dame,
ReplyDeleteDo tell us how many views this page had?