9th August 2019

‘Nothing is in place to assess environmental and health risks.’

The Resignation of Prof Anna Stec from the Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) did not happen in a vacuum.   It is grounded in the SAG changing the remit and parameters of what they were assigned to do from the start. Anna specified in her resignation letter dated 24^thJuly. It states that, “The SAG was originally established to review potential land contamination and its effect in the vicinity of the Grenfell Tower and North Kensington, ranging from environmental analysis to public health.”  As an expert working with a group investigating the potential contamination from Grenfell Fire chemicals, Stec’s departure is an open chasm that all is not well with the ‘official’ response to possible contamination and toxicity.  In her resignation letter to Sir Patrick Vallance, (the government’s chief scientific adviser and chair of the SAG); Stec wrote,

 “There are still a significant number of people suffering physically and mentally following the Grenfell Tower fire, and yet, there is still nothing in place to properly evaluate all the adverse health effects of the fire, and specifically exposure to fire effluents.”

Stec also raised questions about the appropriate level of expertise that AECOM – the company appointed by the government to carry out the official tests of samples.  She was disappointed at the lack of expertise of combustion toxicology or fire effluent analysis of AECOM. She also disapproved of the selection of sampling locations.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) has also failed to reassure the community that all concerns raised by the community and Professor Anna Stec, have been addressed.  A recent meeting at a local Leisure centre failed to meet community expectations for a thorough and robust process of testing and feedback lacked any substantive findings. At times, some of the responses given were at best misleading and at worse did not reassure the community; a community that has to waited now for 25 month to get clear answers.

Coordination between the NHS, Public Heath England, Public and the Environment Agency appears poor. The local community is starting to feel that there is no agency that can provide then with the right answers to their questions or properly address worries and health risks to them and their children to rest.

Prof Stec, a witness in the Grenfell Fire Inquiry, conducted independent tests of land samples to verify contamination levels within a month of the west London fire on 14 June 2017. She found levels of cancer-causing chemicals were 160 times higher in the north Kensington area than normal. She noted,“Nothing is in place” to assess environmental and health risks. The authorities continued to tell us that the area was safe.  Yet the government has said its approach has been “rigorous”.  The Justice 4 Grenfell Campaign would say it is just ‘not rigorous enough.’

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Social inequality was the most serious threat to the democratic fabric of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council (RBKC). It stood for years as the precondition for the preservation of the wealthy south of the borough.

Yesterday’s report by the Independent Grenfell Recovery Taskforce politely stated that ‘In many ways RBKC was a broken organisation in the autumn of 2017. It has repaired itself, and in some areas, it functions well. However, it is still some distance from being a high performing organisation that has the confidence of many of its residents in the north of the borough most affected by the tragedy. We hope to be proved wrong, but we are unconvinced that the current pace of change will achieve this in the foreseeable future. We are in agreement with most of this statement apart from any hope that they will be proved wrong.

At the administration committee on Monday evening, this preservation was seen in its ugliest form; embedded at the centre of a new borough constitution.

The horror of what happened at Grenfell tower continues to hang heavily over North Kensington. The above precondition has a hand in what happened there. The old leadership of the council ‘resigned’ and a ‘new’ leadership gave plaudits to themselves about how they had changed and how they relished future working the local community and had developed ‘new’ ears to listen and learn from us.

In reality, this should not have been something new. In a democratic society, all public institutions should reflect the diversity of those they serve; where this isn’t the case, good practice should enable all voices to be heard; effective community engagement is a dialogue not a monologue. It is about participation not domination; it’s about humanity, fairness, transparency, the list is not exhaustive.

The new proposed constitution was available on the council’s website 5 days before the meeting. The size of the document easily rivalled that of novel war and peace! The community was expected to digest and analyse it with in this time.  RBKC asserted that the constitution had gone out for consultation; where? On the website;  to whom? Resident Associations (RA) – three resident association representatives present at the meeting stated they had not been contacted. Could RBKC provide the list of RA’s that they had contacted – no definitive list was produced to evidence this. There had been a public meeting to consult – how many attended? Fifteen! Due to the small number of attendees no breakdown of their diversity was collated.

In August 2017, we met the then new CEO, Barry Quirk to the urgent need for quality community engagement and communication. One of the issues raised was the need for documents in particular complex documents to have plain English and to even consider getting a crystal mark for council documents. These have never materialised; further to this no Easy read documents are produced, crucial documents are not translated into community languages; there are no BSL signers present at council meetings. This gives a clearer picture of who they don’t want to consult, communicate or engage with.

The question that remains the elephant in the room is why are RBKC rushing this constitution change through. Well, at the heart of the proposed changes is their need to remove the Grenfell Recovery Scrutiny Committee. The committee set up in the aftermath of the Fire. Why we asked because the work that it does can be subsumed into four other committees – housing, adult and social care ………..

RBKC’s second response is that the GRSC is not effective. Why? They gave two reasons – one was the ‘community’ didn’t conduct itself in a manner that enabled ‘their’ business to be conducted. The second was more alarming – they wanted government ministers to attend the scrutiny committee to discuss Grenfell related issues, but alluded that were somewhat frightened to attend because we, yes we the residents posed some kind of threat! Unbelievable

We have asked for a deferral before adopting the new constitution – RBKC chose to ignore this and the Leadership meeting on the 24^thJuly 2019 will, no doubt, rubber stamp it.

We search the RBKC website for an equality impact assessment that should have been done alongside this huge constructional change. We cannot find it.

After the worst disaster since world war 2, RBKC was in a position to effect real change and listen to its residents, they had the opportunity to try new and innovative ways of consulting and engaging its diverse community, they could have become an exemplar model of how a Local authority can be run when you effectively work iin partnership. Rather than take the road less travelled, they are content and secure to continue business as usual. Shame on them.

The outstanding question is who is holding RBKC to account? Or to coin a latin phrase, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who is guarding the guards, who is watching the watchers? Or will they be allowed to continue to widen the gap of social inequality in the borough.

They had year of practice.

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Date: 20th June 2019

The Justice 4 Grenfell campaign welcomes that the venue for the Grenfell Inquiry has now been changed. Bereaved Families and survivors have consistently asked for a change of venue; citing the location and environment of the Holborn Bars building as problematic for many reasons.

The location was too far from North Kensington which caused difficulties in travel to and from the venue, heavily impacting on those with child care responsibilities; those with disabilities and those who didn’t wish to travel on the underground. The venue also offered little or no natural day light, and the room where the proceedings took place was packed and confined, adding to the distress of those attending.

This was pointed out at the very beginning. Their objections to the venue have now been heard. However one cannot avoid the elephant in the room that this is another issue in a long list of others where bereaved families, survivors and residents have had to fight to be heard and then had to wait for months for an answer or change. All during a time when individuals and families were already traumatised and in mourning; this pattern of jettisoning at whim and tardy behaviour we hope does not continue and that the voices of those most impacted will be heard, respected and attended to swiftly.

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On the 2nd anniversary of the Grenfell Tower disaster, the Justice 4 Grenfell Campaign cannot find enough word to express our gratitude for your outpouring of assistance and remarkable support over the last 2 years.

72 people women, men and children lost their lives as a result of the fire; they are not here to speak out, but all of you are ensuring today that their voices are heard.

Martin Luther King stated that

‘Injustice everywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’,

and what happened at Grenfell will stay in our minds forever.

The campaign is fighting for justice and change. In February 2018, Justice 4 Grenfell drove 3 Billboards around London to ensure that what happened at Grenfell Tower stays in the public consciousness. This year we launched the ‘No Death in Vain’ Campaign at London Fashion week.

We will continue to speak out on the injustices surrounding the fire at Grenfell tower and keep it in the public domain; we will continue to demand that the public inquiry keeps ‘people’ at the heart of the process; we will continue to demand changes in laws and regulations, to prevent another disaster like Grenfell happening; we will continue to make demands so that everyone has a home where they are safe. Your continued support will be critical to this –

‘Justice will never be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those of us who are’.

The North Kensington community needs and appreciates your support at this difficult time.

Grenfell,
then fell
in front
of our
eyes.

The terror
it gave
those,in
total surprise.

They lost
family,they
lost friends,
and for them
the torture never ends.

The Fire burns on,
building it’s flames,
we will never forget,
those many names.

 (written by Eva Olaiya – age 10 years old)

—

In memory of the 72 people who lost their lives at Grenfell Tower,

Anthony Disson
Bassem Choukair
Nadia Choucair
Mierna Choucair
Fatima Choucair
Zainab Choucair
Hashim Kedir
Nura Jemal
Yahya Hashim
Firdaws Hashim
Yaqub Hashim
Sirria Choucair
Logan Gomes
Abdulaziz El-Wahabi
Faouzia El-Wahabi
Yasin El-Wahabi
Nur Huda El-Wahabi
Mehdi El-Wahabi
Ligaya Moore
Jessica Urbano Ramirez
Omar Belkadi
Farah Hamdan
Malak Belkadi
Leena Belkadi
Mary Mendy
Khadija Saye
Victoria King
Alexandra Atala
Mohamednur Tuccu
Amal Ahmedin
Amaya Tuccu-Ahmedin
Amna Mahmud Idris
Maria ‘Pily’ del Pilar Burton
Marjorie Vital
Ernie Vital
Debbie Lamprell
Gary Maunders
Berkti Haftom
Biruk Haftom
Hamid Kani
Isaac Paulos
Fatemeh Afrasiabi
Sakineh Afrasiabi
Vincent Chiejina
Khadija Khalloufi
Kamru Miah
Rabeya Begum
Mohammed Hamid
Mohammed Hanif
Husna Begum
Joseph Daniels
Sheila
Steve Power
Zainab Deen
Jeremiah Deen
Mohammad al-Haj Ali
Denis Murphy
Ali Yawar Jafari
Abdeslam Sebbar
Fathia Ahmed Elsanosi
Abufars Mohamed Ibrahim
Isra Ibrahim
Mohamed Saber Neda
Hesham Rahman
Rania Ibrahim
Hania Hassan
Fethia Hassan
Marco Gottardi
Gloria Trevisan
Raymond “Moses” Bernard
Eslah Elgwahry
Mariem Elgwahry