Pictured above is our Christmas “Grinch” mock-up picture of leader of RBKC, Elizabeth “Dizzy Lizzy” Campbell. Sadly, Dizzy Lizzy gave many in our community nothing to be amused about at Christmas.
As regular readers will know, Dizzy Lizzy is one of the senior councillors at Kensington and Chelsea who we believe to be partly responsible for the system of failure althat brought about the Grenfell Tower fire.
Back when the KAA school was built, Dizzy Lizzy reacted to fire warnings about the school being built in that particular location where fire exits were located from Edward Daffarn of the Grenfell Action Group by ignoring his concerns and dismissively rolling her eyes at him. We now know that the building of the school in that particular location limited the Fire Brigade’s access to Grenfell Tower.
The objections raised by residents at the time were not in fact opposition to a school – many local schoolchildren were faced with having to be bussed out to schools outside the borough before; but the previous Conservative administration at RBKC (which Elizabeth Campbell was part of) had sold off the previous local school building to Virgin and is now a private gym.
Last month, Dizzy Lizzy appeared on the Victoria Derbyshire television programme on the BBC for an interview and didn’t exactly cover herself in glory. Many of the Grenfell survivors did in fact, have to spend Christmas in temporary accommodation.
When Cllr Campbell was asked “what do you say to those households who are upset, frustrated and angry that they are still in a hotel?”she merely replied “I would say talk to your key worker, especially if you have children ” and then disgracefully, “is that the right place to have children?” We think at least an apology would have appeared slightly more genuine…….
THINK say to Dizzy Lizzy that your council and its policies played a very large part in this disaster, it is good to hear that the council is now buying properties to accommodate survivors in now, but we say you should have been doing this from the start. And do not even get us started with your despicable attempt to blame survivors because of this council’s less than adequate response.
Dizzy Lizzy came across in that interview as impatient with survivors for not taking up temporary rental accommodation places – outrageous.
She did at one point admit that “it’s our responsibility to make sure there is a sufficient amount of permanent accommodation available ” – well she got that bit right at least. To which Victoria Derbyshire replied : “and you haven’t done that”.
Some of survivors are not always being offered like for like tenancies and we also know that some are not always taking up temporary rented accommodation places as many fear (rightly in our view), being socially cleansed from the borough.
Also, many survivors have been made offers of permanent accommodation only for the council to withdraw the offers. Not exactly much of a Christmas present to do that to someone already deeply traumatised is it Dizzy Lizzy?
THINK say that the best thing that this hopeless so-called leader of our council could ever do for North Kensington and the Grenfell survivors and the bereaved, would be to resign.
Of course it isn’t just the council who have failed our community on continuous occasions. The Conservative Goverment has made deep cuts to the Fire Service and many deregulations to house building – which is also where we put some of the blame. See this article by Diane Abbott, shadow Home Secretary in The Independent here:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.independent.co.uk/voices/grenfell-tower-fire-inquiry-government-failure-broken-promises-sprinklers-social-housing-a7946086.html%3famp
Many in and around our community have lost confidence in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry – the issue of social cleansing from our neighbourhood and many surrounding areas in West and Central London is highly important – and retired Judge Martin Moore-Bick, who was appointed to head the inquiry had previous “form” at the court of appeal for ruling that neighbouring Westminster council were allowed to move a severely ill mother of five 40 miles away to Milton Keynes on the grounds of the government-imposed housing benefit cap.
He also further added that it was “not necessary” for Westminster council to give a detailed explanation as to what other accommodation was available.
Fortunately, Judge Moore-Bick’s ruling was overturned at the Supreme Court the following year in 2015.
Sir Martin Moore-Bick, with respect, is a very experienced judge; but his background is in contract law and most of us who live here believe this to be a criminal case – after all, at least 71 residents needlessly lost their lives – if that isn’t grounds for a thorough criminal investigation and case, we don’t know what is.
One appointment that has been brought to public attention by Matt Wrack, chair of the Fire Brigades Union, is the appointment of Steve McGuirk to the panel. Mr Mc Guirk previously presided over deregulation and cuts to the Greater Manchester Fire service. See this in the Independent here:
Another objection we have to the inquiry are as to why the inquiry team is not culturally diverse – unlike many locals here. For an unknown person to this community, let it be known that so many people from various diverse backgrounds so many residents in the local area have constantly being ignored and even suppressed by the council and also by the Government which does have the power to put this Borough into special measures (which we believe are needed).
Survivors and bereaved from Grenfell speaks submitted this petition to call on the Prime Minister to take action build public trust in this inquiry, which is increasingly looking just about as relevant as our out of touch disgrace of a local authority. We urge everyone to sign and share:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/206722
Theresa May had in her Christmas message, “paid tribute” to the emergency services stating that “the heroes in our emergency services whose courage and determination so inspired the nation in response to Grenfell Tower ” (Yes, unlike her Government and our disgraced Tory once “flagship” of a council that she continues to prop afloat, at many real costs to residents.
But what was Theresa May’s actual Christmas message to our community ? On the 22nd of December, she refused the petition. This left Grenfell survivors and bereaved with only 14 working days to appeal – all but impossible on that date.
Of course she has also refused to appoint additional panel members so the first stage of the inquiry could be completed “as quickly as possible” is it any wonder why so many are now calling the inquiry a “cover up”? She, in our view handed our community a rotten “Christmas present” that not only did not take into account views of survivors and the bereaved, but has yet again, left residents of North Kensington fighting against an unwanted tide of moneyed outsiders, whose only interest in our area, appears to be asset and property-based.
Further thoughts tfrom the Grenfell Action Group here:
https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2017/12/28/further-thoughts-on-the-grenfell-inquiry-panel/
And also their post on Dame Judith Hackitt’s report on fire deregulations here:
https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2018/01/02/hackitt-report-slams-building-regulations/.
And further concerns from our local MP Emma Dent Coad and fellow Labour MP Clive Lewis regarding the disgraceful fact that auditors KPMG have been appointed to the Grenfell Inquiry too. Yes they also audit RBKC and Celotex, the firm that produced the flammable cladding on the Tower. Conflict of interests or what?
Is anyone surprised the inquiry has lost the very little confidence from our community that anyone had in the first place?
This is an anguished time still for us in North Kensington, but THINK would like to say a huge thank you to all who volunteered and donated to Christmas For Grenfell, which did help to bring some much-needed Christmas cheer to many and we would especially like to thank all our readers who donated to such wonderful cause.
We have a community who make us feel proud, but feel utterly let down by both our council and this Government. We ask all the wonderful people who care about our community to please sign and share this petition to get over 100,000 signatures and get the matter debated in parliament and help restore some confidence in our community and bring some hope and hopefully justice for Grenfell this year.
THis Is North Kensington 