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| LIVES RUINED |
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.
From the Guardian:
ReplyDeleteAt 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
The teaching staff of Kensington Academy appear to have set up another JustGiving page here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/familiesofgrenfelltower
Paget Brown told he's got blood on his hands during live BBC interview
ReplyDeletehttps://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/grenfell
ReplyDeleteTMO to blame.
ReplyDeleteFlags at half-mast. Where is our MP ?
ReplyDeleteShe 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.
DeletePeople 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?
ReplyDeleteRobert 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.
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
DeleteThanks 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.
Delete"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."
HSE hid the report on Earls Court maybe something our new MP could cast her eye over.
Delete"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.
ReplyDeleteBeing 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.
DeleteYou're a great advert for voting labour!
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.
DeleteIt 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.
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.
Delete"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."
Still no word from Paget-Brown on Twitter. Incredible.
ReplyDeleteCorporate Manslaughter Charge. Who are the deserving candidates? I'd assume not just one but few?
ReplyDeleteNick 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
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.
ReplyDeleteDo 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.
ReplyDeleteWhat 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.
ReplyDeleteThe TMO knowingly ignore safety fears expressed by the London Fire Brigade on other RBKC estates.
ReplyDeleteAn estate full of vulnerable and elderly residents was left without the required fire safety works for six years.
ReplyDeleteCriminal Negligence !!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe fire brigade served a legal notice.
ReplyDeleteThe Labour MP David Lammy has called the Grenfell Tower blaze “corporate manslaughter”.
ReplyDeleteScotland 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
"Jeremy Corbyn leads calls to house Grenfell Tower victims in luxury Kensington homes."
ReplyDeleteThere 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.
Dear Mr Robert Black,
ReplyDeleteQuite 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...
Get rid of the RBKC "Borough-wide" Tenant Management Organisation.
ReplyDeleteTenant 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.
Well said 16.09. Get rid of the TMO. Power to tenants.
DeleteHas 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.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteThen 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?
DeleteAccording to Black, TMO do listen. *smh*
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4602442/Action-group-raised-concerns-fire-four-years-ago.html#v-3563791939167960066
Empty houses in K&C. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4612036/Sprawling-abandoned-mansions-Grenfell-Tower-s-doorstep.html?mwv_rm=als1
ReplyDeleteThe victims only get £10 per day? And this...
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/OmzBk/status/876273354608660481
Business as usual then. Disgusting.
DeletePlastic backing vs metal backing fridge fire test
ReplyDeleteIn the video description, metal backed firdge extinguished itself after 20 mins.
https://youtu.be/Pvko16hqJ7g
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