MASS ARRESTS OF MASONS?
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The fact the Met put this out doesn't necessarily mean that they are referring to the current council and officers.
This looks as if it's becoming a historic investigation.
Maybe Pooter Cockell will be 'collared'?
I bet the Council and the TMO have already had the very best legal advice that money can buy. They will go on benefiting from the very best legal advice for a long time to come. The trouble is Council Tax payers are all paying for it. When the bills have been paid, we should be able to establish under the Freedom of Information Act exactly how much was spent on legal advice.
ReplyDeleteGives a whole new meaning to Legal Aid.
indeed, you are entitled to ask for this information. Should be interesting. How much of taxpayers' money they have already p*ssed against the wall. We all know how deft they are at this process. No qualms whatsoever.
DeleteI have concerns about Emma Dent Coad's acquiescence in the Tenant Management sham during her time as a TMO Board member. I saw her on Channel 4 News acknowledging her former role on the Board laying blame firmly at the door of the wealthy Tory Council.
ReplyDeleteShe knew exactly how tenants were treated by the TMO and was quick to tell Channel 4 about it. Emma did not break ranks and speak out when she was a TMO Board member. She maintained the collective responsibility line required of every TMO Board member and, I believe, must explain why she did that in order to be held to account.
Elsewhere on this blog someone has made an entry at 21.54 that Emma has reason to be "silent" over the Grenfall Tower refurbishment. If Emma has reason to be "silent" on the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, whoever it is who knows why she has reason to be "silent" IS MORALLY BOUND to inform the police, or Jeremy Corbyn so that she may be questioned.
She, as well and many others should be interviewed under caution. There is no time limit.
DeleteSad Badger, I agree. Dent Coad should not escape investigation or be left unscathed by the silly games that she played whilst serving on the TMO.
DeleteIf nothing else, Emma Dent Coad MP should be shown up as an opportunist.
DeleteHow dare she do her no sh*t will land on my carpet act because all she did was serve as an opposition Councillor and a TMO Board Member. She might be Labour, and even a Socialist, but she is in the sh*t beyond her elbows right up to her armpits by allowing the TMO to thrive when she knew what a disaster it really was.
In that respect so will Victoria Borwick who was conntacted by Grenfell residents directly about their concerns and fear which fell on deaf ears. Borwick should be relieved she got out of it when she did.
DeleteI am going to quote a previous commentator on the TMO, last paragraph is important:
"I have a feeling you don't have much experience of what actually dealing with the TMO entails.
The TMO do not provide any contact details for any members of the Board, whether resident, Council appointed or independent. Residents and RAs are expected to NOT contact Board members directly and Board members are advised not to talk to residents or RAs. Yes, really.
If you're a resident or an RA you are supposed to talk to customer services or a member of staff. They are the only official contact point for everything.
What members of the TMO Board get to see is therefore very much controlled by the staff. The papers tabled at Board meetings are written by either members of staff or the Council. All policies and strategies are dreamt up by either members of staff or the Council. Board members never write anything, rarely propose anything and certainly never table any papers at Board meetings they have written themselves. As has already been noted repeatedly elsewhere the Board is a sham.
If a resident or RA wishes to complain about a fire safety issue like fire alarms they will, in the first instance, complain to a member of staff, possibly a senior member of staff, possibly a technical member of staff, but a member of staff nonetheless. There is no guarantee that the member of staff will then pass that complaint "up the chain" and certainly no guarantee that it will be brought up at a Board meeting (guess what's likely).
Councillors serving on the Board are of course a different matter. Their contact details are available from the Council website so a resident or an RA could always contact them directly about any concerns they might have. They might then raise the issue with the most senior staff directly or at a Board meeting. But this has always been frowned upon and Councillors are clearly discouraged from doing so (as has already been noted elsewhere). Sadly even if a Councillor brings an issue up at Board there is only a very slim chance that the rest of the Board will treat the complaint seriously. The resident Board members wouldn't generally know any better. And even if they do they will probably be placated/fobbed off in some way by the staff.
Fire alarms are actually not an issue I would have expected residents or RAs to complain about. Some tenanted properties have had mains powered smoke and heat alarms fitted but most have not. None of the estates have communal/central fire alarms. It is unlikely they would complain about something they don't have and are unlikely to ever have. What they are probably complaining about however are broken fire doors, damaged emergency lights, vandalised dry risers and poor fire escape signage. All of which can be found in abundance. But if you can provide a citation I would certainly be interested in taking a look.
If I were a board member of a company that did not allow me oversight I would resign. By staying, impotently acting in a non role, I become the problem. It's that simple.
Ideally, yes. In practice, no.
Even if the whole Board resigned tomorrow and refused to get back on the only seat likely to remain vacant for very long is the one Council seat allocated to the Labour party. The TMO would quite happily operate under that regime.
Ultimately the only party in a position to make a meaningful change to the way the TMO is run is the Council, and thus the Conservative Party. But they've always been perfectly happy with the arrangement up to now. Will that change?"
16.33. You have told me nothing that I did not know. I am afraid that it does not get Dent Coad off the hook.
DeleteLet's get this straight. I have twenty years' experience of dealing with the TMO. I have around eight years' experience of trying to get Emma Dent Coad to do the right thing in her capacity as a TMO Board Member and as a Councillor and, was very disappointed. It was easy to contact Dent Coad, because unlike other TMO Board Members, the Council publishes her email address so that residents may write to her. She did not respond to emails (inexcusable because that is what Robert Black and his TMO does with tricky correspondence) or tell me that I must go to TMO Customer Services. Instead, she often ignored my emails.
Similarly, I have corresponded with Blakeman who was just as bad as Dent Coad at failing to do the right thing. To give Blakeman her due she did answer emails curtly with short shrift which is a big improvement on Dent Coad's performance. In case you are wondering, I have also tried to get the Tory Condon Simmonds to do the right thing and gave her up as a bad job. Victoria Borwick engaged with me and did try to resolve things but was not much better. She was never on the TMO Board.
So please forgive me if I will not allow the sanctimonious Emma Dent Coad MP to make political capital out of the Grenfall Tower tragedy. She is every bit as much to blame for the situation in Housing Management because she failed to do the right thing. She supported the TMO by being on its Board for around four to five years and by failing to resign from the Board to speak out frankly against TMO. You seem to be saying that this is alright because if she had been a woman of principle and resigned to show up the TMO, it would have made no difference. I expect a higher standard from a socialist.
18.15 evil triumphs when politicians of any party take the line of least resistance. Well expressed and argued. Well done.
Delete80 people might not have died in Grenfell if those elected to the TMO Board including those appointed to it by the Council had clipped the TMO's wings instead of indulging the managers running a failing organisation.
DeleteCouncillors of all parties have much to reproach themselves.
She has sold people down the river. How can we be sure that Grenfell people will not be sold down the river too?
Delete18.15.
DeleteWhat's the point of Socialism if Socialists do not maintain a higher standard compared to their Tory opponents? IF Socialists, like Emma Dent Coad MP, let their higher moral standards slip, we might as well all give up on Socialism and vote Tory.
An error of judgement? Or a lack of integrity?
DeleteA fiduciary duty is the highest standard of care. The person who has a fiduciary duty is called the fiduciary, and the person to whom he owes the duty, is typically referred to as the principal or the beneficiary. If an individual breaches the fiduciary duties, he or she would need to account for the ill-gotten profit.
ReplyDeleteA fiduciary duty is an obligation to act in the best interest of another party. For instance, a corporation's board member has a fiduciary duty to the shareholders, a trustee has a fiduciary duty to the trust's beneficiaries, and an attorney has a fiduciary duty to a client.
ReplyDeletelet's wholeheartedly hope that those who will conduct the interviews under caution, will use your interpretation.
DeleteAnyone can be summoned and interview under caution. There is no time limit, Pooter as well as Derek Myers should be interviewed. Myers has much to answer for, as it has been reported that he and his side-kick at Shelter have/had personal vested interests in the company making the cladding panels. Are these hearings likely to be televised? Should be/may be interesting.
ReplyDeleteBoth Reg Kerr-Bell and Emma Dent-Coad were on the same C4 TV programme trying to deflect blame but having little of substance to say. Guilty consciences?
ReplyDeleteI didn't see Kerr Bell on the Channel 4 piece that I watched. I know that Emma isn't a great public speaker but she now comes across as being very sheepish when discussing housing management in Kensington and Chelsea. I would never have described her demeanour as sheepish before her election to parliament. I suppose she is worried that some clever journalist might turn up her tacit approval of the tenant management sham by failing to break ranks with the TMO Board and go public about the mess that the TMO is and has always been.
ReplyDelete21.53. I do not know if Emma has a guilty conscience. She should throw herself on the mercy of everyone that the TMO has done down for complicit acceptance of it.
URGENT UPDATE - DEADLINE EXTENDED
ReplyDeleteYOU ARE INVITED TO SUBMIT YOUR VIEWS, EXPERIENCE AND EVIDENCE FOR THE INQUIRY TERMS OF REFERENCE BEFORE 4TH AUGUST 2017.
PLEASE DO NOT MISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE YOUR VIEWS, EXPERIENCE AND EVIDENCE AGAINST RBKC AND KCTMO
To be submitted in writing by letter addressed to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL, or by email to: contact@grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk, not later than the end of the day on 4th August 2017.
The Chair hopes that those submitting views will understand the need for such a short deadline. He cannot begin to take evidence until he has been given Terms of Reference. Naturally he wants to do that as soon as possible. It will not be possible to respond to individual written submissions, but their receipt will be acknowledged and all views provided by the deadline will be taken into consideration.
The Chair welcomes any suggestions or views. The following questions could be used as guide but are not restrictive.
● What do you think the Inquiry should cover?
● Is there any type of evidence that you think is essential for the Inquiry to
obtain?
● What should the Inquiry deal with in its interim report? What should be left for the main report, so the interim report can be published quickly?
● Would you like to be kept informed of the Inquiry’s work? How would you like to be contacted?
The Terms of Reference can, on the recommendation of the Chair, be varied by the Prime Minister during the course of the Inquiry, if it appears necessary to do so.
GRENFELL TOWER PUBLIC INQUIRY TEAM 5/7/2017
@28 July 2017 at 18:15, Cllr Blakeman at least raised a number of complaints with TMO but TMO typically ignored them.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/zRW2TB4F-hs
Cllr Blakeman has done a remarkable job, tirelessly helping residents and even helping those residents outside of her ward, we were lucky enough to receive her help when other councillors ignored us, namely Cllrs Pascal, Taylor-Smith and Warwick to name just a few!
ReplyDelete18.45 and 19.38 So why didn't Councillor Blakeman resign from the TMO Board and speak out against the TMO? 80 people are now dead. Easy to speak out now, some might call it opportunism.
DeleteIf the TMO ignored her representations as 18.45 claims, (and I do not disbelieve this point because the TMO is despicable) surely Judith had more reason to do the right thing by resigning to break the bond of collective responsibility to show up the TMO.
I know that she is a nice woman but she cannot be exonerated because she is a decent person.
18:45 here. As far as my personal experience with Cllr Blakeman, being out of her ward, I am very appreciative of her taking care of my case and this time TMO got into action switftly which hasn't happened in 18 years of my experience with TMO. She has also helped others who couldn't get help from their own (i.e. out of her ward) So she has done what is right as a Cllr and more in a way for me.
DeleteFor the previous complaints raised for Grenfell, what can you do after raising so many complaints only to find a brick wall? So she should have given up her position back then? It is because she stayed, she is able to follow it through by bring the history of things that went on. IMO, she hasn't done wrong. Don't forget, many people complain but unless you can put proper paperworks together she cannot help.
Might I also add, when she was on the TMO board, she did raised issues but people rolled their eyes by saying, "oh it's Judith again" and ignored her too. Take it or leave it, I think she is genuine, I do read body language btw. I'm sorry if you are offended because she's from Labour but if Tory Cllr did the same for me, I'd praise them too but they are nowhere to be seen!
DeleteCllr Blakeman was better trying to exert pressure and influence on the inside than being on the outside. Cllr Blakeman was the ONLY Cllr we have met so far with care, compassion, listening and understanding and we were not even her ward, despite this Cllr Blakeman gave us her time, expertise and helped us greatly, for which we remain very thankful.
ReplyDeleteJudith has helped many but she is not immune from healthy criticism. She went along with tenant management by serving on the TMO Board when could have made a better choice. She should have resigned from the TMO Board in order to blow the TMO out of the water and free every tenant from oppression and incompetence. The TMO is hated by those it serves and Judith knew this.
DeleteCllr Blakeman is a legend. Look at Cllrs Pascal, Warwick, Taylor-Smith, Condon-Simmons and many many more that could not even be bothered to reply an email.
ReplyDeleteCllr Blakeman could not bring down the KCTMO on her own, but she has exposed them in many ways and we hope time will show the efforts she went to and what she achieved.
21.05 Fighting on the inside does not wash. This fighting from within the TMO kept the TMO going when it should have been stopped dead in its tracks long ago. I think you probably agree with me about that. The political fighting from within worked for you but it did not work for Grenfell, did it.
Delete21.49
DeleteNo one is suggesting that she could bring down the TMO on her own. She could have gone public and enlisted the support of all opposition councillors. This would have created more of a stir than representing those who contacted her. What about all those people who do not know what a local councillor does? Many tenants do not know that they can approach a Councillor on the TMO Board who is not their Ward Councillor.
The better educated do better with middle class Councillors of all parties in K&C.
21:49
DeletePlease name the "many ways" in which Cllr Blakeman exposed the TMO.
Cllr Blakeman will indeed be exposed for her cowardice and complicity in refusing to act when she knew full well what was going on at the TMO.
Delete@ 23.15 Labour Councillors should be held to account in the same way that Tory Councillor are going to be held to account.
DeleteBlakeman's political reputation was never shiny white. For years as leader of the Labour group she had an excessively friendly relationship with Hornton Street. Drinks in the mayor's parlour etc. Labour councillors were referred to as the Tories' dancing partners; co-operating to keep lids on various scandals. EDF eventually replaced her as leader, but after only a year was sacked for being too, shall we say confrontational? EDF became Labour's parliamentary candidate. At the time her election seemed unlikely to say the least. Since then, no doubt largely due to the political fallout from the Grenfell fire, there's been an attempt to re-write history. Suffice it to say, Labour's current ardently leftist attitude is recent. One might say "Corbynly" recent.
Delete@21:49 we disagree, it is more complex than you suggest.
ReplyDeleteWe hope now that justice will be done, KTCMO dissolved and those perpetrators within KCTMO/RBKC held to account
Agreed! The Mafia must go.
Delete22.12. Thank god someone agrees with me. KCTMO must be wound up and those responsible for this horrible situation held to account. Everyone is so upset yet the TMO is still functioning.
ReplyDeleteKCTMO/RBKC from we have experienced are amateur to the extreme in a professional world, they are without expertise or knowledge.
ReplyDeleteQuestions and answers with Nick Paget Brown were a joke and a disgrace. Robert Black meetings on the bus and free food, what an absolute joke.
The old boy network must stop, it doe NOT work.
Nick Paget-Brown did not have the credentials to be leader and he has been replaced by another person without credibility.
Robert Black has an art degree which is totally unrelated to being CEO at KCTMO
I believe Robert Black does not hold a degree. Only college diploma. Either way, the qualification doesn't fit to run the housing company. So How did he get there? I seem to remember someone saying someone had put him up. What is the connection? Can you imagine Robert Black wearing an apron?? Scottish Branch?
DeleteAnyway, I am off to check how many years one can receive for a corporate manslaughter. I wonder if it's one corporate manslaghter charge or will it be multiplied by the number of deceased?
@08:20 Amatuer?? Totally incompetent. After a long waiting time calling the customer service, they will either cut you off or if you get through and tell them that the repair is in the bathroom, next time you ring up to chase up the repair, the notes have miraculously changed to something else or even better repair closed and another reference appears.
ReplyDeleteAs for housing officers, you can never speak to them. They are either out of the office, away from their desk, on the phone or on training. But if you call and say you are thinking of buying the property, they will pick up the phone. ;)
If anyone wants to know what I did and did not do during my time on the TMO, you could check Board Minutes, or ask Maighread Condon-Simmonds who was then, and still is, a Board Member. As was Elizabeth Campbell for a period.
ReplyDeleteFor the first two years I was regularly yelled at by other Board members for asking awkward questions - which I thought was my job. Not to mention my demand to curtail the 'jollies' Board members were treated to, such as weekends away at the tenants' expense, while rent arrears were rising. The TMO had to get an outside adjudicator to deal with this appalling behaviour, among more serious governance issues, in 2009.
I left in 2012 soon after the in principle decision was made to refurbish Grenfell Tower, which was suffering from broken lifts, draughty windows, and the heating and hot water system regularly breaking down. All the details of the refurb were agreed after I had left. I'm writing a rebuttal with checkable facts and will share it with the Dame.
But don't bother to read it, I'm sure it's more fun to simply repeat unfounded slurs.
Shane, my emails tell me I wrote to you 78 times. Have you forgotten what we achieved together on the basements in Elm Park Gardens? After a long battle we forced the Council to turn them into keyworker and (unfortunately) intermediate rented homes for the TMO.
No, Emma I have not forgotten my collaboration with you over the basements in Elm Park Gardens and the amount of time we spent dealing with the subject. I was more than happy to assist you and provide whatever information you needed because it was the right and moral thing to do.
DeleteHowever, I am very disappointed that you and Judith gave succour to the tenant management sham by serving on the TMO Board collectively for nine years. The Council has always claimed that the TMO, since its inception in 1996, derives its authority to manage Council housing because it has the support of both Labour and Tory Councillors. If Labour Councillors (including you and Judith) had stopped supporting tenant management by resigning from the TMO Board and by mobilising the support of all opposition councillors, the TMO may well have folded by now. I am concerned that Council tenants, many of whom have monstrous lives, have had twenty one years of misery wrought on them by the TMO and that this might have been different if opposition Councillors had played it differently and not gone on supporting the situation. As someone has noted earlier on this blog fighting from within has not worked.
As you know, local authorities are supposed to set an example to private landlords about good tenant management practices. It is hard to imagine a private landlord being worse than the TMO. I think it was misguided of Labour Councillors to support something that you are saying has been dreadful in the treatment of tenants for years and I stand by my criticism.
Further extension of the consultation on terms of reference to 4 August 2017
Delete19 July 2017
Following feedback from local residents and survivors, Sir Martin Moore-Bick has decided to extend the consultation period by a further week to 4 August 2017.
Details of the consultation are available here. Please send your responses to the consultation to contact@grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk or by post to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL.
EDC. You have lost all credibility. My advice is to start keeping a much lower profile.
DeleteEDC has no credibility.
DeleteShe is being disingenuous by listing everything that she did whilst on the TMO Board to rebut criticism of her failure to resign as a Director of the TMO in order to speak out publicly about how bad the place was without the constraint of "collective responsibility." By doing so she kept faith with the TMO at all times and is at fault for doing so.
The Westland Affair shows that Michael Hesseltine was more principled and radical than Emma Dent Coad MP. He walked out of Mrs Thatcher's Cabinet to severe the bond of collective responsibility in order to speak out publicly in the press about the improper way Mrs Thatcher was running government. Emma should have done this over the improper practices of the TMO.
DeleteA Tory that was more radical than a Socialist. Well, I never
Emma Dent Coad was on the TMO board as was Judith Blakeman after her. A lone Labour voice on a board which comprised eight residents, three council-appointed members and two independent members. Emma Dent Coad has always been an advocate for resident rights which is why she is now the MP for Kensington. In this context it is worth quoting some of the outstanding report from ASH [Architects for social housing]. If you read the report you will get a clear understanding of the way the TMO decision making was done – far away from the board members who exist to provide the legitimacy for the real decision making undertaken by the TMO management structure and members of the Tory council.
ReplyDeleteThe KCTMO is not a co-operative it was set up under corporate law. And although the housing stock it manages is still owned by the council, as an ALMO (the only UK TMO, apparently, that is also an ALMO) it is exempt from Freedom of Information requests (not that councils answer these either, or when they do the information requested is redacted). The distinction between public and private means very little these days, and one look at who sits on this board shows that it’s run by housing professionals fronted by politicians with the acquiescence of compliant residents – in other words, the same privatised management structure being put in place for every other estate regeneration scheme in London.
There was nothing wrong with either the original design or build of Grenfell Tower. Four decades of developer-led housing policy, government cuts to local authority budgets, the financialisation of housing in the UK, the managed decline of our estates by councils preparatory to their demolition and redevelopment as properties for capital investment, the privatisation of council housing management through ALMOs, TMOs and the stock transfer of council estates to housing associations, the unaccountability of local authorities increasingly run as private fiefdoms by councillors who are little more than lobbyists for the building industry, and the recourse to Private Finance Initiatives to build housing whose safety is subordinate to the profits of developers, builders, architects and estate agents getting rich on the UK’s housing crisis – that’s what killed the residents of Grenfell Tower, not its architecture.
@12.04 The Information Commissioner has stated that In certain respects the TMO is not exempt from Freedom of information Act requests. There is a complex criteria about when a request to a TMO about certain aspects of housing management falls within the ambit of FOI. The TMO can legitimately refuse requests under FOI if it relates to any aspect of the Company's business.
DeleteFurther extension of the consultation on terms of reference to 4 August 2017
Delete19 July 2017
Following feedback from local residents and survivors, Sir Martin Moore-Bick has decided to extend the consultation period by a further week to 4 August 2017.
Details of the consultation are available here. Please send your responses to the consultation to contact@grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk or by post to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL.
I know we have many complaints due to years of neglect but don't you all want to turn this 'rotten' borough into a wonderful borough? I am assuming that we all love this borough if it wasn't for the mini mafia culture which ruined it. I think now is the time to start thinking about how we can improve it rather than just saying 'get rid of all the Tory Cllrs'. I know I'm talking in general at this point but bite size improvement here and there will be achievable and you'll soon find our borough transform into something wonderful. I am proud of how the Lancaster West community has come together and it would be wonderful if we could become the flagship borough we were meant to be and be an inspiration. I want the rest of the country to remember that the strong community turned the disaster and borough around. I have one idea, how a part of the TMO service (hopefully dissolved in the future) could be transformed and I'm going to discuss this with Cllrs in the future. I'd imagine it would save costs too.
ReplyDeleteNot in this lifetime @12:31 - Do you live in RBKC/KCTMO property?
ReplyDeleteReading this shows why our party political system is crap. Labour point scoring off the Tories, The Tories knocking Labour. Where does it all end and who benefits? No one! 79 people dead and horrible squabbling. Politics. Should housing be political or is everything political?
ReplyDeleteBoth parties were and remain responsible for the poor condition of Grenfell Tower and RBKC's other council owned housing. Tory involvement is obvious. Labour's less so. However, despite multiple claims to the contrary, Labour remains partially responsible for a preventable catastrophe.
ReplyDeleteThere's no leadership at the Town Hall. Cllr Campbell is a clueless wealthy lady. She believes that spouting cliches will resolve a national disgrace. Her newly appointed chief executive arrived; said nothing and left to take a holiday. Government civil servants must replace RBKC's remaining councillors and officers. Current and former "cabinet" members must be excluded from a special local election. RBKC desperately needs fresh leadership.
@15:46 YES - AGREED THE SOONER THE BETTER
ReplyDelete15.46 and 17.26, I agree entirely. The Labour Party and the Tory Party are both at fault for different reasons.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure whether it would be lawful, in these circumstances, to disqualify anyone from seeking election to the Office of Councillor but I share the sentiment you express. I think it might require an Act of Parliament to create a framework for disqualifying the class of persons that you have in mind.
Reg Kerr-Bell said on the C4 news programme that TMO's management was a shambles. If so, why did he return to the TMO Board after a brief sojourn attempting to become a Tory councillor? And did he finally leave the Board in a fit of pique because he was no longer Chairman, rather than because he was appalled by the TMO. He evaded every question put to him by the interviewer and when pushed as to how the TMO could be wound up he said that only an Act of Parliament could do that. Oh....and then he turns up on a news report covering the demonstration outside the council chamber, hiding from the camera as it pans the demonstrators on the Town Hall forecourt. Blending in with the masses? Or spying rabbit caught in the headlights?
ReplyDelete@00.01 Despicable of Reg. Like others mentioned on here, Reg was part of the problem at the TMO. He was most definitely not part of the solution.
ReplyDeleteHe is wrong and should have a better understanding of the way in which the winding up of the TMO could be achieved.
(i) An Act of Parliament is not required.
(ii) The Company's Membership could petition and vote for the winding up of the TMO at an EGM. Highly likely that this would be successful in the light of Grenfell.
(iii) The Council could end the Management Agreement for serious breaches relating to the management of Council housing. I think we are all agreed that there have been serious breaches of the Management Agreement.
EGM - is it 500 signatures now needed from members of KCTMO?
ReplyDeleteLets get started!
The TMO's Hazlewood Tower has had more than one fire in recent years. And not to forget the stairwells of the World's End Estate's Blantyre Tower and Greaves Tower catching fire in 2014. And another Worlds End flat around that time which had a fire because of timber decking on a balcony catching light. Tower block fires aren't as rare as we would like to think.
ReplyDeleteIt is a very silly suggestion that Labour should resign from the TMO board. One Labour councillor resigning will hardly bring the TMO crashing down. You might just as well suggest that the 11 Labour councillors resign from the council, since they are not listened to there either.
ReplyDeleteMore to the point, the TMO is meant to be a tenant-led organisation. It has a majority of tenant and leaseholder residents on the board. Why have they never challenged the TMO on behalf of tenants? They could easily outvote the rest of the board, yet they seem to leave opposition just to the one Labour councillor. Both Emma and Judith have done their best to bring some sense to the organisation, but with little or no support from any other board member.
16.13. I have never read anything so crass. Read the foregoing on this page and you will see why Dent Coad and Blakeman got it wrong.
ReplyDeleteIt is a good job that political activists in Nazi Germany didn't say, We have to put up with Hitler because there is nothing we can do. The essence of your contribution above appears to be Dent Coad and Blakeman were right to play the tenant management game because there was nothing they could do and they lacked the political skill to do anything differently.
Dent Coad and Blakeman supported a managing agent that they knew to be incompetent and they knew how badly the TMO was treating tenants, including Grenfell people: so badly that 80 people are now dead.
Blakeman and Dent Coad should have resigned from the Board and mounted a public campaign against the TMO. If they had had the guts to do this, there would have been a considerable stir created in the local press, in the Council Chamber and with the good gracious lady, The Dame. If they were skillful, it would not have been difficult to show the TMO's position was untenable.