Has trust broken down completely between the Grenfell Tower survivors and the authorities?
The Met Police has said the emergency services have to sift through 15 tonnes of debris on each floor of Grenfell Tower, in search of hidden human remains.
The fact that 125 families have turned down offers of accommodation from the Conservative government speaks volumes.
The government had promised to offer new homes, near Grenfell Tower, to all surviving families – by today, July 5.
But it has only managed to offer places to 139 out of the 158 families known to have survived the blaze, of whom only 14 have taken up the offer.
And the reason take-up has been so low?
They don’t trust the government.
They believe they will be put into accommodation that will have a higher rent than Grenfell, putting them out-of-pocket and effectively punishing them for being victims of the fire. They believe they will be moved out the area they have made their home, and where their lives are based. They believe they will be shifted from one temporary dwelling to another, with no permanent, high-quality home being made available.
And why shouldn’t they be given high-quality homes in which to recover from their traumatic ordeal?
Today, the Metropolitan Police made their first significant announcement on Grenfell for some time, saying that the last of the visible human remains have been removed from the tower block.
The announcement stated that 87 recoveries have been made – but that doesn’t mean 87 different bodies and it will take some time to identify the bodies. Meanwhile, the search for hidden remains – among 15 tonnes of debris on each of the tower’s 20+ floors – will go on until the end of the year.
Survivors were given this news at a three-hour meeting this morning – and reacted angrily.
Police offered them no information about missing family members – they could not even confirm any more deaths.
And survivors were infuriated that nobody has been arrested in connection with the appalling safety failures that turned Grenfell Tower into an inferno.
Worse still – for the government’s public relations record – is the announcement that a task force is being set up to take over aspects of Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council’s work, after the authority failed to respond adequately to the disaster.
KCBC’s new leader, Cllr Elizabeth Campbell, has welcomed what she described as the speed at which the Conservative government responded to her request for help – but the new organisation will not be up and running for several weeks and nobody has been assigned to it.
Add it all up and you’re left with very little: No homes, no action – and no resolution.
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Hi Mike I found this interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EUQtONR1Oo
For the hundredth time, what are you linking TO?
i appreciate that discovering any more remains is going to be the hardest task for the police and whoever else is involved in the search. but isnt there a list of people actually known to have been in the building at the time? i know that there was a (?Ramadan?) gathering in one flat. unless everyone in that flat perished and only if they were ALL the members of one family,only then would there not be someone to ask or tell who was there. people MUST know who is missing or at least most of them. or have i missed something?
I thought the easiest way would be to check residents’ bank accounts and see which ones haven’t been touched since the disaster, apart from automatic debits and credits.
One problem is, the council have been taking rent and council tax payments out of the victims accounts, couldn’t that be classed as usage?
No. I said automatic payments would have to be ignored.
this of course suggests that they all had bank accounts, including children. the police have a very difficult job in such a large building as they cannot go just on the recorded list of who lived there but also have to consider who may have visited on the fateful day. in the past they have been acused of going too fast and placing deaths on people still alive but also with such a heavy fire they may not find evidence of all the bodies. it is easy to say x number lived there as records show but only y are left and seeking homes, leaving z unaccounted for and thus thought dead. someone is bound to complain regardless of the statements issued
The bank account idea was just off the top of my head. Other possibilities should present themselves to people whose job it is to ascertain whether other people are still around. And yes, children have bank accounts.
Someone will certainly complain, no matter what, but it does seem the authorities are dragging their heels. What’s to stop them from asking if people have been seen?
Not sure trust even started with the tenants who were always second to these arrogant hyphonated surnames trying to save their own political skins and avoid litigation and prosecutions…..and probably still working on their self preservation
even now. Body count still in the long grass I note.
It would be interesting to know where this “task force” is going to be drawn from….G4S was my first thought, as they seem to be popping up everywhere these days………
I may be wrong mike but werent most of the residents from the poorer backgrounds? just going by the reaction i read about from the more ‘affluent’ residents of nearby tower blocks and im assuming other types of housing. in which case i cant imagine the kids having bank accounts and possibly if they did, they would be in trust till they are whatever age the parents deem them old enough to manage one??? unless the parents themselves manage them. but wont bank account details be among the debris bunt to a cinder? how many banks are there around there? would take some delving from all those banks to find out if A.. any of those missing had accounts with any of them. B. wether any withdrawals had taken place in the aftermath and succeedibg weeks. just thoughts. as you say it may the only way to find out SOME answsers