Grenfell MediaWatch Report:

What, Where, When

JUSTICE?

The Government RBKC Councillors Decision-making Accountability Responsibility LFB Risk Assessments Fire Safety Residents Listening Policies and Procedures Job Descriptions Communication Building Regulations Materials Regulations Reporting Guidelines Action Death Toll Public Health Fire Emergency Protocols Ballots Salaries Budgets Investments Criminal Investigations Paperwork Media Reporting Fuel Poverty Tax Consultants Lawyers Developers Panel Members Experts Meetings Living Poverty Action Homelessness Mental Health Fraud Freedom of Information Fines Public Inquiry Select Committees Deniability Housing Community Ownership Location The School Community Spaces Charities Volunteers Community Initiatives Cost Sentencing Representation Public Money Hierarchy Bureaucracy The Law Amendments Pain Judgement Numbers Reparations History …. to name a few…. 72

June 2019

In remembrance of the Grenfell Tower community Including those that lost their lives, the survivors, family and friends

About Grenfell MediaWatch

Grenfell MediaWatch (GMW), is a group of volunteer Citizen Journalists formed in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. Our group is unfunded and includes volunteer members from North Kensington and across the UK. Using our collective skills and grassroots experience, we use the tactic of monitoring and critiquing national, regional and local media to counter the misrepresentation of community issues. Together we collect, analyse, report and share information by creating openly biased content, in service of the community. We are committed to Malcolm's "make it plain" philosophy.

This report was produced by the Grenfell MediaWatch team of Amma, Angie, Anu, Dawn, Isis, Jay, Oleander, Sophia, Toyin

Please credit any content use to GMW and contact us if you would like to provide feedback or collaborate.

Fair Use Notice: This is a not-for-profit publication for educational use only and may include images that have not always been specifically authorised by the copyright owner.

[Rev.1 – 2 July 2019]

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Contents

Introduction 1 Focus Points 3 Media Trends 4 Grenfell: A visible injustice 8 Report on Met Police’s Community Drop-in Session 16 Prosecuted 20 Justice or JUST US? 22 Antiuniversity Event: Media Watching in the Aftermath of Grenfell 28 Some Key Questions on the Stay Put Policy 29 Public Inquiry Update - Phase 2 33 Suicide in the Aftermath of the Grenfell Tower Fire 38 Recommendations 42

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Anthony Disson, 65 Ligaya Moore, 78 Gary Maunders, 57 Jeremiah Deen, 2 Bassem Choucair, 40 Jessica Urbano Ramirez, 12 Berkti Haftom, 29 Mohammad al-Haj Ali, 23 Nadia Choucair, 33 Omar Belkadi, 32 Biruk Haftom, 12 Denis Murphy, 56 Mierna Choucair, 13 Farah Hamdan, 31 Hamid Kani, 60 Ali Yawar Jafari, 81 Fatima Choucair, 11 Malak Belkadi, 7 Isaac Paulos, 5 Abdeslam Sebbar, 67 Zainab Choucair, 3 Leena Belkadi, 6m Fatemeh Afrasiabi, 59 Fathia Ahmed Elsanosi, 71 Sirria Choucair, 60 Mary Mendy, 50+ Sakineh Afrasiabi, 65 Abufars Mohamed Ibrahim, 39 Hashim Kedir, 44 Khadija Saye, 24 Vincent Chiejina, 60 Isra Ibrahim, 35 Nura Jemal, 35 Victoria King, 71 Khadija Khalloufi, 52 Mohamed Amied “Saber” Neda, 57 Yahya Hashim, 13 Alexandra Atala, 40 Kamru Miah, 79 Hesham Rahman, 57 Firdaws Hashim, 12 Mohamednur Tuccu, 44 Rabeya Begum, 64 Rania Ibrahim, 30 Yaqub Hashim, 6 Amalahmedin Tuccu, 35 Mohammed Hamid, 27 Hania Hassan, 3 Logan Gomes, 1m Amaya Tuccu, 3 Mohammed Hanif, 26 Fethia Hassan, 5 Abdulaziz El-Wahabi,52 Amna Mahmud Idris, 27 Husna Begum, 22 Marco Gottardi, 27 Faouzia El-Wahabi, 41 Maria ‘Pily’ del Pilar Burton, 74 Joseph Daniels, 69 Gloria Trevisan, 26 Yasin El-Wahabi, 20 Marjorie Vital, 68 Sheila (Smith), 84 Raymond “Moses” Bernard, 63 Nur Huda El-Wahabi, 16 Ernie Vital, 50 Steve Power, 63 Eslah Elgwahry, 64 Mehdi El-Wahabi, 8 Debbie Lamprell, 45 Zainab Deen, 32 Mariem Elgwahry, 27

“Forever in our hearts.” June 2019

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Introduction Greetings, welcome to the June 2019 edition of the Grenfell MediaWatch report. Two years on from that tragic day at Grenfell, the North Kensington community remains both physically and metaphorically scarred. We continue to mourn our losses, we continue to keep precious memories alive, we continue to demand answers and we continue to fight for justice. As 2018 drew to a close, we started to see reports that the next phase of the public inquiry will not resume until the end of 2019, some media reports suggested maybe not until 2020. In the meantime, we are asked to wait while the chair Martin Moore-Bick produces an interim report based on the 20,000 documents collected and almost 100 days and he and his team have worked on.

For many, this entire process has been one of delays, “If such a tragedy was to reactionary responses and failures to act in a timely fashion. happen tomorrow, who Not only did official bodies fail to take action in the immediate would and should take aftermath of the fire, but they have also continued to be responsibility for people's reactionary after the communities affected have raised safety, during, and in its concerns, or indeed, been forced to protest their collective immediate aftermath?” grievances. There are many examples, from collating the names of families after the fire; the inability to assist with the coordinated relief efforts by volunteer groups and the lack of sufficient support in areas such as mental health and wellbeing. The rehousing situation is worse with the council initially making offers of high rise buildings in some cases, to the survivors who escaped the fire. It's easy for many to forget the soil contamination concerns that were highlighted in private, then leaked to the media after the area was investigated by the authorities and cleared as being low risk. It begs the question: if such a tragedy was to happen tomorrow, who would and should take responsibility for people's safety, during, and in its immediate aftermath?

When Dany Cotton, commissioner of the London fire brigade, gave testimony she was very clear. If the same thing were to happen again, even with hindsight, she would not do anything different. She was among a cabal of people responsible for our safety who, when asked to give account for their actions, simply replied – “I don't remember”. If any of the people convicted for fraudulently claiming resources meant for Grenfell survivors had shown such contempt to the judicial system, they would have received extended custodial sentences. For a privileged elite however, justice seems to be an abstract idea like planning for a space shuttle landing on the Shard.

The recurrence of such a tragedy is not that far away. Close to two years on and there have been numerous tower block fires across the UK, the most recent being in Barking East London where fifty homes were destroyed. Thankfully no-one was harmed. Yet we

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are already learning that the residents had complained to their landlord Bellway Homes with fire safety fears. Fortunately there is some good news, the campaigning work of Grenfell United has raised awareness of the horrendous threat such fires pose and it has had an impact on the public conscious. At the end of May 2019, when the Gooch House Tower Block caught fire in east London, members from the nearby Madina Mosque bravely risked their lives to help rescue hundreds of people before the fire brigade arrived.

National support for the Grenfell community also saw the inquiry reverse its plans to exclude additional voices to the inquiry panel and recently appoint Professor Nabeel Hamdi, an international expert in housing and planning, and Thouria Istephan, a partner at firm Foster + Partners with responsibility for construction regulations as new members. Reparative progress in institutional processes are occurring very slowly, but the goal of achieving justice seems to be even further away than it was two years ago. We frequently hear the narrative that the Grenfell fire was UK’s deadliest domestic fire since World War Two, yet despite this, some media commentators are factiously suggesting we should be willing to wait for the same 27 years it took the Hillsborough families to see a second inquest deliver justice. The police have already announced they don’t expect anyone to face criminal charges for the Grenfell Tower fire until the end of 2021. That is, if they and the Crown Prosecution Service decide anyone should be charged in the first place.

And so we wait, not because it’s necessary, but because it enables politicians to allow time to pass so passions can die down, for the British public to forget or become distracted with new political issues, for the police to say they have no suspects, for the inquiry to publish its final report, many years later and suggest there are 'lessons to be learned'. It doesn't have to be this way; it mustn't be this way.

We hope you find this report useful. Thank you for reading.

Peace, Love and Justice Grenfell MediaWatch Team

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Focus Points

Government Investigations Social Community Media Response & Justice Response Agendas Reports (Requiring Public (Including Non-MSM) Support)

Public Inquiry Met police criminal Reparation (local) Projects Hostile Martin Moore Bick investigation Community initiatives Daily Mail Contributors (Operation Reparation (national) Community groups LBC Core Participants Northleigh): Community voices The Sunday Express Family support Kids on the Green The Daily Telegraph Corporate & Permanent housing The Kitchen The Sun individual Distribution of The Times manslaughter donations BBC* charges Mental health Andrew O’Hagan Politicians protection Community 383 companies Fire safety Champions Cost-focused MPs 197 officers assurance Reflective Sajid Javid Minister – Community asset Justice4Grenfell Channel 4 £1.1bn underspend Equality & Human safeguarding Grenfell United The Guardian on social housing Rights Commission Air quality checks Grenfell Speaks Independent two years running (Following Grenfell) The Silent Walk Huffington Post RT Gavin Barwell - the Inquest The Canary Housing Minister, (Family reflections on Community Spaces Double Down News failed to update fire Grenfell: No voice left The Village (Acklam) TeleSur safety regulations unheard) The City Inside Housing The College James Brokenshire - Elizabeth Prochaska (Wornington) Secretary of State for - Director Equality & The Gym Housing, Human Rights Community Centres Communities and Commission Faith-based spaces Local Government Building Regulations: Dame Judith Hackett Nicholas Paget-

Brown (RBKC) Legal Review of

Housing Rock Fielding Mellen Law: (RBKC) Bristol & Kent

University Robert Black CEO

Social Housing

Commission People-focused MPs

Emma Dent Coad The Social Legacy of

Grenfell: Diocese of London

Panel Experts Coroner’s report: Communication Local businesses *exception Grenfell Assessors Dr Fiona Wilcox Documentary Lawyers

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Media Trends A snapshot of some of what the media has been saying about Grenfell…

Sitting on millions At the time of wrapping up this report, a damning investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, in collaboration with HuffPost UK and the BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service, revealed that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) made £129m from selling property in the years leading to the Grenfell fire tragedy, although renovation works were still potentially compromised by fatal cost- cutting. This included the cheaper and more combustible cladding widely believed to have led to the fire tearing through the building at the rate that it did. The investigation also revealed that despite claiming that legal restrictions prevented local authority rental income from being used to pay for renovation work, RBKC did use money from the sale of council property to part pay for the work.

Some good news Leanne Mya, the 31-year-old survivor of the Grenfell Tower fire, captivated the nation by performing on Britain’s Got Talent, singing Sam Smith’s Lay Me Down. Many think she’s heading for the finals and there wasn’t much disagreement among the main media players that the rendition stole the hearts of the judges, viewers and did her community proud. Nice to see a uniting story out there. Keep watching and supporting Leanne.

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Prioritising the fraud of the Grenfell 14 Since the launch of the Grenfell public inquiry, a variety of related topics has faced much scrutiny in the media. We’ve seen stories about the lack of sprinklers in tower blocks to articles expressing uncertainty over current and future cladding regulations. However one of the favourite stories of tabloids, as well as the Telegraph and even the BBC, were those that involved fraudulent claims. No one can deny the press have been diligent in reporting on the various cases of fraud coming out of the woodwork. But is the focus disproportionate? Out of hundreds of people affected by the blaze, 14 individuals have been charged with misrepresenting themselves as victims by collectively claiming around £650,000. No one has been charged or arrested over the deaths caused by the fire itself.

What the London Fire Brigade did or didn’t do The actions, capability and culpability of the London Fire Brigade (LFB) have been a key part of the inquiry and has also received major attention in the press. Debates have centred around whether their ‘shortcomings’ in assessing the scale of the fire at the time contributed to people dying and whether the ‘stay put’ advice the LFB management maintained after their compartmentation strategy had failed, was the right advice. It was initially reported that the police have considered pursuing health and safety offences against the fire brigade but there has been little follow up on this.

The obsession with Meghan Markle and her cookbook The collaboration of the new royal, Meghan Markle, with women from the Grenfell community-based at the Hubb Community Kitchen (Hubb means love in Arabic) was fondly reported by the media. The cookbook ‘Together’ was a bestseller and we got to learn what England’s very own Hollywood princess wore, what she talked about with the women, what she cooked and whom she brought with her – her mum in case you missed it. Sadly, some in the media chose to besmirch their efforts by helping to propagate smears by the right-wing Henry Jackson Society targeting the al-Manaar mosque hosting the independent kitchen project. The group who have been accused of Islamophobia claimed 19 individuals and an Imam at the Islamic community centre might have gone onto carry out acts of violence or promoted abhorrent extremist views. The mosque denied this and condemned the attempt to “take away from the incredible achievements of these women who do so much good for the local community”.

Unfinished business – Is the soil around Grenfell toxic? In October the University of Lancashire carried out soil tests around Grenfell Tower, revealing large concentrations of potential carcinogens that could have health implications for the people who live and work close by. Lawyers representing more than 270 bereaved, survivors and residents wrote to Public Health England (PHE) to ask for bulk testing of soil, dust and fire residue samples. PHE gave the site an all clear, but after

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The Guardian revealed an independent expert had warned the local council and health agencies of the urgent need for checks, ministers ordered soil tests while the council attacked the reputation of Professor Anna Stec who conducted the initial tests. At the end of March the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government acknowledged ongoing health concerns and establishing a “comprehensive program of environmental checks” along with health screenings while at the same time Stec’s team uncovered “significant environmental contamination” from a range of toxins, which included oily deposits from a flat 160 metres from the site, 17 months after the fire.

Andrew O’Hagan’s new narrative In June, Andrew O’Hagan, Esquire’s Editor-at-Large, published his 60,000 word essay ‘The Tower’ in the London Review of Books attacking the community account of the tragedy and the integrity of survivors calling for justice. His approach created consternation among the community for ignoring fundamental issues at the heart of why the tragedy occurred. He was accused of distorting the words of interviewees and maliciously playing down valid reasons explaining why there was so much anger at those responsible for their safety at the time. In addition, O’Hagan was criticised for misrepresenting himself to the community in his research for the piece and writing with an agenda to exonerate the council.

Still not looking after people – Mental health provision for Grenfell An ongoing news story, unfortunately still relevant since the night of the fire, has been that of the mental health impact on the community. Six months after the fire it was found that thousands were affected but had not had access to crucial trauma services. Six months later with 700 people being treated at the time, related health costs were expected to amount to £10m within two years of the tragedy. Two months later it was found that two-thirds of survivors had shown signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

An unfathomable replay of the fateful night was created When a video emerged of a mock Grenfell Tower structure, placed on a residential bonfire on or near Guy Fawkes night, while onlookers laughed, there was notable hurt, anger and condemnation from the community, the wider public, ministers and even Prime Minister Theresa May. The police apprehended several suspects, some of whom turned themselves in and were later released. In April 2019, Paul Bussetti, a 46 year old man from South Norwood, was charged with two counts of sending or causing grossly offensive material to be sent via a public communications network. Many pointed out that the outrage from the top of government should be saved for bigger fish – the corporations and policies that allowed the actual fire at Grenfell Tower to happen.

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Keep an eye out for – Arconic buyout The company that supplied panels for Grenfell Tower is on the cards for a buyout. Reports have shown interest by Blackstone and The Carlyle Group – at least the arm responsible for the manufacture of the cladding – and also the Apollo Global Management (which resulted in a reportedly failed deal). The worry here is the inquiry is still ongoing and the investigations are not complete. While there has not yet been any fault found against the company, many believe that any takeover must ensure the interests of those who have a stake in the inquiry are not jeopardized. MPs have said they will oppose the takeover should it compromise their alleged culpability.

Blink and you might miss – KCTMO try to change things up The Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation (KCTMO), which managed Grenfell Tower, had tried to hold a closed-door meeting to change its structure. The move concerned residents who believed this could enable them to avoid scrutiny both by the public inquiry and by the police investigation. Residents were keen to ensure they are held fully accountable if any wrongdoing on their part has been identified.

GMW Media Hatchet Prize The Telegraph’s deliberate positioning and weeding out of old news stories and attaching them to the Grenfell community – made irresistible with Meghan Markle’s association with the community kitchen being in the headlines at the time – and misrepresentation of the Al Manaar Imam’s words (according to his own statement) is yellow journalism at its best.

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Grenfell: A visible injustice

Interview with Shareefa, community volunteer In the hours after the fire at Grenfell, Shareefa remembers that the situation was dominated by chaos and confusion. In spite of this, the community came together, supporting people affected far more efficiently than the council, did, then or now. From Shareefa’s perspective, ‘they were appalling from day one, nowhere to be seen.’

Two years since the tragedy, Shareefa is still supporting many people still affected – people who lived in the towers, or residents from the walkways who had to be evacuated because of the damage done to their homes from falling debris from the tower. That so many remain in temporary accommodation is particularly frustrating for Shareefa. She often imagines what the survivors are going through, what they have to endure. ‘If I want to boil an egg at 4 in the morning, I can’t, because I’m in a hotel. If I want to wash my laundry I can’t, I have to think about what jumper to put aside, because there’s no washing machine. It’s the reality of not being able to ground yourself – all people need is suitable accommodation, for them to live comfortably, not be squashed in a room.’

The prime minister’s pledge that ‘We are running around, talking to housing lawyers, everyone would be rehoused asking them to take up people’s cases because they within three weeks was, in are being told they’re going to be made homeless Shareefa’s view, unrealistic, within days. We are just community members. This is given the number of people from having networks, being aware…most of us are affected and the fact that the volunteers, this is about common humanity. A lot of council were still not seen to be people are being offered housing do far out of the doing enough to assist. The borough – people shouldn’t be away from their community continues to do the families.’ work that the council ought to be doing.

At the time of writing this article, 150 households are still in temporary housing, out of 203 that lost their homes. For those families still negotiating for a new home, Shareefa thinks the media is portraying them as greedy or ungrateful, when the truth is, the situation is much more complex than being offered suitable homes. ‘My friend who’s a survivor,’ she told me, ‘they kept offering her different properties – they were nice flats, but they were in tower blocks, with no fire exits, or no lift. How are you offering someone who is traumatised, who left a burning building, these ridiculous options? Someone I know was moved from a hotel to a hostel, and it was so bad that my friend ended up sleeping in his car.’

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For Shareefa this is indicative of how anxious the council is to house people quickly, insensitive to the particular traumas that many survivors are experiencing. Shareefa claims that people are being encouraged to take anything and then request judicial review – to challenge the decision of the home allocated in court. However, this can be a long and expensive process, with no guarantee that the decision will be overturned. ‘It’s like a threat’, said Shareefa. ‘If you don’t take a place you are deciding to be homeless. Take the place, ask for judicial review but we don’t know how long before that goes through. So, you might be stuck in a room that’s smaller than your hotel room.’

Shareefa was also concerned about the fact that many who had agreed to be rehoused in boroughs further away did so because of language barriers. She was concerned that those people will be forgotten, just because they have been housed. ‘We don’t know if they are happy with how they’ve been dealt with? Who’s going to check if they are okay, who is going to do that work? What about the people who have been moved out of the city? What about asylum seekers? Who is looking out for them?’ Shareefa described herself as always being politically aware, having worked on campaigns led by families of people killed in police custody. ‘Grenfell was a real smack in the teeth, because I can see the building every day – it’s a visible injustice and that’s affected me. It’s made me more adamant to support people who need it’.

Shareefa was clear about who should be held accountable for the massacre. ‘The TMO, Rock Feilding- Mellen, who signed off the use of the cladding, Seledex, who were aware that the cladding was flammable. The firefighters had no idea of the effect of fire on the cladding – why weren’t the rescue teams given the right information?’ Justice is seeing those responsible for the massacre put in prison. ‘The people who created this nightmare, I want them to be in prison. I want people in this community to be able to sleep at night, knowing there is some sort of justice. The people who have mismanaged this, the ones who turned their backs, who went on holiday and switched their phones off, they need to pay. It’s not just about finding people decent housing, it’s about justice’.

What is justice? Winston, resident of Lancaster West Justice means the truth. And to have the truth to know exactly where to look, it’s right there in front of everybody. Over the years people have been complaining, shouting, and trying to explain to these people the problems they’ve been going through, living in the place they’re living, in different aspects, in different ways. And there’s no concern for them. There was never any concern, no care, nothing - it’s like their backs were turned on everybody. They weren’t listened to, it was like that’s okay, we’ll look at that next week. You can’t do that – you’ve got to look at it straight away. And the truth is, the blame lies where the blame lies. And it’s right at the door of the folks in charge – the people

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responsible for the community, whose rents were being paid to. None of their voices were heard, so what we saw, the tragedy we saw, was because of this. No one listened, no one cared.

If I could sum up justice in a few words – we lost a lot of people in those flats. Women, children, families. The young, the elderly. Everyone you can think of, we lost there. Whoever signed certain papers, for the cladding, these are the people you’ve got to look at. Whose name is on certain papers? Probably a lot of them will try and hide or try and get rid of certain information. But there’s always a trail. There’s always evidence. They didn’t care because money was being made, and safety wasn’t cared about. It was just about money. They were cheap people, and in doing that created a system where there is no safety, because you don’t care about people’s lives. If you cared about people lives, when people were crying to you for help you would have sorted those things out. But you know, you never sorted those problems, you turned your back. So, my idea of justice, all those who signed certain papers, who participated in in the cladding and the putting up of the cladding, these are the people you’ve got to look at, and also the people higher than them.

We’re not stupid. We know these things were put together by a certain group of people. Lives have been lost – why should lives be lost and everybody walks free? No! You can’t do it like that. If I burnt your house I’m going to prison for life, or whatever they’re going to do to me. Why are these people because they are from a different money stature, that they can get away with it? No! That’s not justice. They know who has done wrong – we want is for those who were involved, who were corrupt, who signed papers, to be brought in front of the courts and be dealt with – they must get a sentence. People lost their lives. Think about these things – how do you sleep at night, knowing that you played a part on those people losing their lives?

Andrea Newton – former chair, Lancaster West Residents’ Committee Andrea Newton became active in campaigning for better housing conditions on Lancaster West Estate in 2015. A resident since 2012, Andrea was living with anti-social behaviour in her building, and had been trying, with little success over four years to get the council to satisfactorily repair her plumbing system. This opened her eyes to the level of indifference that the council displayed towards the tenants. When someone asked her to complete a form listing what worked and what didn’t in her flat, she became more involved in trying to make changes to improve the housing, which encouraged her, and other tenants to form a residents’ committee.

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I’d never done this before’, she told me, ‘I was really nervous. We found out that KCTMO were calling an Annual General Meeting – I think they got twitchy when they saw how active we were getting – they wanted to form a residents committee with residents they could control. They didn’t put any posters up – which I think was unconstitutional – we found out about it and we ran down (to the town hall) and nominated each other. Myself, Clair Doohan, Jackie Blanchflower, pastor of the Latymer Christian Centre, and Fatima DeJesus who works with elderly and vulnerable people. We all agreed it was going to be a lot of work, that we wanted to do activism. Claire and I were chair and co-chair respectively. We asked the elder committee members to guide us, as they’d been part of the residents’ committee since the 80s. I stood again at the next AGM in 2016 and was re-elected.’1

Andrea and her colleagues learned very quickly the attitudes of council officers towards the residents. She described it as similar to that of the feudal system of the 11th century, where the lords viewed the people on the land as without a voice and inconsequential. ‘We held a public meeting, with the then leader of the council Nick Paget-Brown; Rock Feilding-Mellen, the then deputy leader and head of Housing, Property and Regeneration; and Robert Black, of the KCTMO,’ said Andrea. ‘We started negotiating with them on improving fairness around retrospect regeneration, ending overcrowding, and fairness in the repair system and helping vulnerable people (living on the estate). Working with them was like being in those books I was reading to my students at school. We were in the company of landlords who were proper lording, like in the feudal system. They didn’t seem to feel that the tenants’ opinion of how their properties were managed was their concern. They did not feel it was helpful to get the opinions of the people, who would be experts in where (the council) could save money, where it could improve.’

Negotiating the improvement of conditions was long, and frustrating. Where possible, the council would attempt to hold things up. The residents’ committee were attempting to build a manifesto with the council, to get them to commit to a series of improvements. ‘It took ages’, Andrea recalled.

‘They would meet us and spin us around, have meaningless consultations, or take six months between meetings, or refuse to engage. Eventually we had a manifesto, we said this is what we want. We sent it to them and they responded RBKC letterhead’.

1 Andrea resigned as chair in January 2018

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This indicated that the council was officially prepared to negotiate. Slowly, things began to progress; however, there seemed to be a reluctance on the part of the council to collaborate in any meaningful way with the residents committee. Feilding-Mellon acknowledged that overcrowding was an issue – initially he believed that more 2- bedroom properties were needed, ignoring the fact that people were using their living rooms as bedrooms. The residents’ committee brought residents to give testimony that he could not ignore.

Negotiations with Robert Black had begun to build a new customer relations management system to handle all the data for repairs and to identify tenancies – even on this issue there appeared to be a refusal to embed good practice. ‘They didn’t have a correct list of who lived in what property. They wanted to build a new system with a database of who lived where and what their needs were. My intention was to end disrepair –but everything they wanted to do, everything we were negotiating on – would not make the system accountable. They didn’t want to arrange for text messages to be sent to confirm that the work had been done, or if the person doing the repair even turned up. They didn’t want to use this really good system I had managed to get with a discount, a system that Princeton, NASA and Harvard used. They just wanted to use some old Microsoft dynamics and leave us out of the design – we were meant to be co-designing, but they kept pushing us out.’

The council seemed to double down on its insistence that it was managing things in an efficient manner. The lack of efficiency around repairs had created an atmosphere of apathy among the tenants. Andrea recounted an example of an elderly man living in Grenfell Tower who had no water in his bathroom. ‘He just lived like that because he was fed up of asking. Repair engineers don’t turn up, and make you feel like you’re not entitled to live in a decent home’. Grenfell Tower was suffering significantly from disrepair, which affected the residents’ lives adversely. From Andrea’s perspective, council officers’ attitude was one of indifference or they tried to absolve themselves of responsibility.

‘The lifts were constantly broken, and people couldn’t go out and do their business, let alone go out for important things like hospital appointments or, an emergency. People were trapped in there. My last complaint [before the fire] was with Peter Madison, head of Assets and Regeneration at KCTMO. He kept saying the lift repair company was at fault, and I said no, you are. You get a better lift company or change the incentive. You need to figure out if they’re incompetent. He tried to fob me off in his emails and I told him we’ve got to fine them or not pay their fee if they are not doing their job or change the lift! People can’t be trapped in a building’. Andrea said that this refusal to listen was endemic in the council.

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‘I knew of so many vulnerable Although the council claimed it had 98% customer people living in long term satisfaction, Andrea knew of tenants whose repair disrepair, living in such bad requests would be closed down or disappear when conditions and it was so they called to check up on its progress. ‘You had degrading to beg for basic to micromanage your own repairs’, said Andrea. repairs for safe housing, that people just gave up.’ On the night of the fire, Andrea awoke to a red glow on the window. ‘Before I even got to the window,’ she told me, ‘I knew what I was going to be looking at. Grenfell Tower was on fire, and my heart sank. I thought of the people in there; of my friend who said that something like this was going to happen.’ She got in touch with the other members of the residents’ committee and over the course of that morning, worked on getting places to open to receive people. She remembers helping police to clear the area under the tower, where residents who had escaped were standing. ‘We didn’t see anyone else coming out, and I knew that they weren’t coming out, and it was so distressing knowing that.’

Nick Paget-Brown, the leader of the council at the time of the fire, did not respond to the residents’ committee’s attempts to contact him for 11 days, which Andrea thought was extraordinary, ‘bearing in mind that we were the constituted body that the council could speak to.’ She had reassured tenants that the committee could get in touch with the council to assist victims and their families. Nobody from the council was helping – people were left on their own, something, Andrea said, one couldn’t imagine what that felt like. Luckily, she told me, ‘we have some really clever community minded people, and buildings were opened and set up as camps, but the situation remained chaotic as people were split from their families, relatives from all over the world were flying in to try and find family members.

When I asked Andrea about her thoughts on why rehousing people was proving to be so difficult, despite the prime minister’s pledge to rehouse everyone within weeks, Andrea replied that the initial response was a mess that had to be unpicked.

‘Instead of commandeering one big hotel and offloading existing guests to another hotel with some kind of compensation, and keeping everyone in one place, where you could communicate with everyone, which is what we were suggesting in the beginning, they split everyone up all over London, into B&Bs where they hadn’t negotiated a long-term arrangement. Hotels weren’t vetted; some people stayed one or two nights and were moved on. All this delayed the process of doing a needs assessment for the rehousing and set back the whole process’. She believes that the council could have begun

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purchasing homes much earlier, prioritising residents that had been the most affected by the tragedy. The resignations of council officers did not help the situation, nor did the attempts to rehabilitate RBKC’s image in the aftershocks of the tragedy. ‘When you have a new leader of the council come in, you’re reinventing the wheel, while the wheel still needs to turn’, said Andrea. ‘You can’t stop the wheel and reorganise it – I think the council were not able to admit that they were incompetent and reconvene with the admission that they weren’t efficient – they were in denial about how inefficient they were. They weren’t equipped to deal with people in this kind of distress – it’s never been the attitude of this council to care about people in social housing’.

That said, there seems to be some effort in making small forms of amends. Andrea has had meetings where there is a commitment to making homes for life, which she feels this is how residents want them to be. Attitudes consequently are slowly changing, but Andrea insists that councillors and officer undertake cultural and community awareness training, ‘to remember what their job is, remember who they serve, and why they are there.’

There are some new officers that Andrea thinks are good, and they have hired local community people. Andrea is concerned, however, that these employees are at risk of being exploited, as they work part time and should be paid full time given the range of tasks they do. She says she has high hopes for a couple of new employees. Andrea said she had some confidence in the inquiry but is mindful that it will not seek the prosecution of those guilty, which is down to the criminal investigation. She believes Martin Moore Bick, the judge leading the inquiry, is sincere, but one of her concerns is that the council will be able to hide behind central government policies that will absolve them of responsibility -they did nothing wrong, for example, because the policies were correct. For Andrea, one thing is clear: the cladding shouldn’t have been used. The inquiry can look into changing safety procedures and correcting policy where it has gone wrong.

Who should be held accountable for what happened? Andrea was clear on who was at fault.

‘Within the local council, the criminal investigation will uncover incompetence, it will uncover managed decline, callous disdain and possibly breaches of policies in particular safeguarding. I think the investigation will find that the RBKCTMO had very bad practice and RBKC tried to wash their hands off it and let the TMO crack on – but RBKC is our landlord so they have to be accountable. The public inquiry is already showing that the cladding was not safe, and it will also find all the fire regulations in this country are wrong – buildings aren’t built to spec, and somehow people are allowed to live in unsafe housing. People are allowed to live in buildings without sprinklers, one fire escape in a tall tower and be covered in flammable materials. This will all come out and all the people involved.’

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Justice was ownership of one’s behaviour. ‘If you’ve done something wrong, you have to admit it. It shouldn’t take a big inquiry to sit you down and tell you what you did was illegal, or wrong, or life threatening. You could go to prison for the rest of your life and still deny it. You have to face the people you hurt. This has to be a restorative process – I don’t think an apology will fix anything, and I doubt the families even want to hear an apology, it won’t change anything for them. They have to be given appropriate sentences for their crimes, the people who lied to us and disregarded us have to take ownership for that.’

All interviews conducted by Dr Angelina Osborne

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Report on Met Police’s Community Drop-in Session By Toyin Agbetu

It’s almost 7:30 pm on the 27th February 2019, in Bay 20, the community space built by BBC DIY SOS team. I’m in an upstairs room that has been split into four sections. Senior police officers and officials at the front, some around a table on the right, community members on a table to the left. At the back of the room near the door are light snacks and liquid refreshments. As I pause deciding where to sit, a man comes up to me and looks to shake my hand. I’m carrying a cup of peppermint tea and a couple of biscuits. Realising that with my hands full I’m not going to be able to reciprocate his attempts at a handshake, he jokes “I wouldn’t put down my biscuits for anyone either”.

He is making an effort to be friendly; I appreciate that. I shift them all to my left hand and grasp his open palm. We shake.

“I’m Matt”, he says.

“Nice to meet you” I reply, I’m always hesitant giving my personal details to police officers, even smiling ones. His attempt to interact on a personal level suggests to me that he’s making an effort to show goodwill. As I take a seat to the left, I realise that I have no idea if the evening’s exchange is going to be a good or bad one. The session has been described by the organisers as;

“The Metropolitan Police team leading the investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire will be attending the first of a number of drop in sessions at Bay 20 on 27 February from 7.30 till 9pm. If you have any questions or want to meet some of the investigation team then please feel free to come along.”

Half seven comes and the meeting starts.

It’s a small crowd, initially with as many police officers (5) present as community members. However, as time passes, the dynamics quickly change. Detective Superintendent Matt Bonner formally introduces his team to us and then reiterates the reason for the meeting. He opens by letting us know that he can neither confirm nor acknowledge any information that may compromise the investigation. Then with a little prompting, DS Bonner explains how, as a team, they are often annoyed by speculative media reports that inaccurately state their position. With this, he is referring to recent

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media reports claiming the government are refusing to fund all of the police costs into the Grenfell investigation. He explains that they read the articles and were frustrated by the inaccuracies in them, but as a policy has chosen not to respond where possible. The truth is, funding for the investigation is not a problem, the police have all the resources needed irrespective of the shortfall.

As he continues, I think this unofficial ‘press release’ addressing media speculation is not really what we’re here for, but it seems as something the team wanted to get off their chest.

DS Bonner explains that there is a specific order in which the team communicates its position. First, they prefer to talk to those directly affected by the tragedy. He then lists the Bereaved, Survivors and Residents (BSR’s). Next, he says, they finally reach out to any interested parties giving what they are doing with the community today as an example. I note how he doesn’t mention at what stage they inform the government, I find it implausible that after notifying his immediate superiors of any developments, that the team does not first communicate its findings with politicians and then the inquiry. I remain silent, choosing to let that slip.

It is around then that DS Bonner drops the bombshell. We will not be hearing much from the police this year while they are processing evidence and chasing leads he says;

“This year it will seem as much is not happening, it’s not true but will seem to be the case.”

To make matters more challenging he continues, core participants will be served evidence, bound by confidentiality clauses because “criminal investigations are not done in public, [as] we don’t want to compromise later trial.”

They don’t have a Timeline they can share with us at the moment but one is imminent. What seems clear is that no charges are likely to be brought in the criminal investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire for at least two years. That takes us to 2021 if we’re lucky.

Inside the room there is a collective drawing of breath, and the questioning starts. I’m sitting on the left next to another three individuals. The one nearest to me, a man with locs politely thanks the police for coming to share this information. The officers

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momentarily relax and then for the next forty minutes they are quizzed with a barrage of questions – some friendly, some not. Slowly as the discussions proceed more and more people enter, first one, then a pair, then another. The Bay 20 team look for extra chairs to accommodate the steady influx of residents and community members.

Not before long the police officers are outnumbered and outflanked. Throughout it all DS Bonner does most of the talking despite the presence of his team. The energy in the room alternates between informal to journalistic, accusatory to defensive. At its most passionate, it is combative and rhetorical, there are times it feels as though the meeting will erupt with anger, but balance is maintained as the room self-moderates.

We learn that despite the police looking at the incident through the lens of gross negligence and corporate manslaughter, it is health and safety legislation that may offer them the easier option to prosecute under and achieve a successful conviction. This is because it relies on the exposure to risk being a factor and not direct cause of death. There is no answer given to the question about whether there is a statute of limitation on any of the potential categories the crimes are being investigated under. However there is much confusion over who is responsible/liable in corporate cases. The CEO? The elected head (i.e. council leader)? Etc.

The community requests the police repeat the session periodically but next time with a short report containing updated timetable and possible charges, metrics on resources, arrests, etc.

The DS Bonner and his team agree this is doable and after dealing with some more lyrical assaults including some righteous uppercuts with a block and occasional procedural jab - round one is over. I leave before the session resumes for the next round of sparing wondering if the police will remain true to their published statement that;

“This will be the first of a number of sessions so please don’t worry if you can’t make this date. The event is aimed at those from the Grenfell and surrounding community but is open to anyone”

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Summary of session findings:

Where is the police investigation now? The police have currently received 45 million documents received / 250k have been read so far. 11 people have been questioned under caution

What are the police investigating? There are two strands to the police investigation; the first is the preparedness of the emergency services, covering how they functioned on the night and before. The second covers all aspects of construction, refurbishment and management, including the council (RBKC).

What possible charges/offences are the police considering? Gross Negligent Manslaughter (Difficulty is in proving a direct link to deaths) Corporate manslaughter (Occurs when SMT fails badly and someone dies) Health and safety (The duty to keep residents and employees free from risk), Misconduct in Public office

What is police threshold for arrest? They will not prosecute someone for breaching building regulations but will use as evidence for something more substantial

What is the Crown Prosecution Service’s criteria for a prosecution? That there is enough evidence to proceed, and it is in public interest to do so. Has the fraud investigations diverted resources away from the murder inquiry? No. The team has six fraud officers who operate separately from the 200 working on identifying those responsible for the loss of lives.

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Prosecuted People convicted of fraud associated with the Grenfell Massacre

Sharife Elouahbi Elouahbi claimed he lived with the El-Wahabi family who were his relatives. He received £103,000 in accommodation and other costs. On discovering there was no evidence of him ever entering the building he was charged with fraud and pleaded guilty before his trial began. He was jailed for six years.

Koffi Kouakou Kouakou claimed he was the partner of Zeinab Deen, who died in the fire. He was given hotel accommodation and rehomed in a council flat, at a cost of £30,000. He was sentenced to four years.

Mohammed Syed Rinku Rinku, who was in the UK illegally, claimed he had been living in Flat 204 at the time of the fire. He received £5,000 in support and was jailed for 18 months.

Abdelkarim Rekaya Rekaya claimed he was a Grenfell Tower resident and had been made homeless by the tragedy and received accommodation and was rehoused at a cost of over £80,000. He was jailed for four and a half years.

Jenny McDonagh McDonagh, a Kensington and Chelsea employee, stole £62,000 from the fund assigned to the victims. She received a five and a half year sentence.

Derrick Peters Peters lied about living in Grenfell Tower to escape a jail sentence for burglary. He received hotel accommodation at a cost of £38,000. He was sentenced to six years in prison.

Tommy Brooks/Elaine Douglas Brooks and Douglas pretended to be victims who lost their home in Grenfell Tower. They were put up in hotels for a year at a cost of £125,000 before their deception was discovered. Both illegally in the UK, they also took advantage of a scheme that allowed residents leave to remain amid fears that immigration statuses would discourage victims from coming forward. Brooks was sentenced to three years and three months, and Douglas was sentenced to three years.

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Mohammed Gammota Gammota claimed his father died in the fire and received hotel accommodation and hundreds of pounds. He was jailed for three years.

Antonio Gouveia Gouveia claimed to have been living with an elderly woman in Grenfell Tower. He received hotel accommodation and funds. He was sentenced to three years and two months for fraud by false representation.

Anh Nhu Nguyen Nguyen claimed his wife and son died in the fire. He received hotel accommodation, clothing and gifts and £11,270. Police discovered he had 28 convictions for 56 offences over 30 years including theft and grievous bodily harm. He received a 21-month sentence.

Joyce Msokeri Msokeri claimed she had escaped the fire but her husband had died. In truth she was single and lived in Sutton. She claimed around £19,000 in cash donations, electronic goods and clothes and was given hotel accommodation. She attempted to claim insurance on her fictitious partner’s death. She received a four and a half year sentence.

Mohammed Gaboota Gaboota claimed his father was Abdelsam Sebbar, who had died in the fire after becoming trapped in his flat. He claimed he had survived because he was at evening prayers at the time. He was not related to Mr Sebbar, nor did he live in Grenfell Tower; he had found Sebbar’s notice of death in the newspaper. He received £500 and was given hotel accommodation. He unsuccessfully attempted to claim a further £5,000. He received an 18-month sentence.

Yonatan Eyob Eyob claimed £81,000 in cash and £11,000 towards a new home. He claimed he lived in a flat in the tower in which a family of five perished. CCTV proved he had never been to the building. He was charged with dishonestly making a false representation and received a six year sentence.

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Justice or JUST US? A universally accepted definition of justice can yield different outcomes depending on your socio-economic, religious or ethnic background, according to one resident who describes how the notion of justice has manifested in the community around Grenfell. By Isis Amlak

In Judeo-Christian religions and in the Islamic faith, there is a Jews, Muslims and Christians conventionally held belief in justice as a prevailing, which in common with mercy, is ultimately within the jurisdiction of YHWH, God or Allah. With regards to the latter, the notion of justice is a central tenet, the Qur'an teaches Muslims that they must ‘Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be against rich or poor.’ Qur'an 4:135 The western concept of justice is personified by a blindfolded woman holding scales in one hand and a sword in the other, Lady Justice. Allegorically she represents the supposed moral force embedded in the Anglo American judicial system. However, the female personification of justice is not a European concept but rather originates in ancient Afrika.

In the UK the notion of justice is inextricably linked to the rule of law and encapsulates the principles of equity, fairness, impartiality, rights and even righteousness. In all populist notions of justice, the maxim that we are 'all equal before the law' is heralded as a guiding principle. The Merriam Webster online dictionary defines it as ‘the principle or ideal of just dealing or right action…’

The Law and the justice system is described on gov.uk as follows:

“The legal system must uphold fairness in society… The justice system must punish the guilty, protect our liberties and rehabilitate offenders. We will ensure that more criminals make amends to victims and communities for the harm they have caused and help them break the destructive cycle of crime.”

Similarly, a search on the same site on the Ministry of Justice - About us page reads:

“The Ministry of Justice is a major government department, at the heart of the justice system. We work to protect and advance the principles of justice. Our vision is to deliver a world-class justice system that works for everyone in society.”

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Not only are there varying definitions of justice, but the notion of justice has an all- encompassing remit, whether it be criminal, economic, environmental, gender, racial, social or other, in terms of where it manifests itself in our geopolitical landscape.

Justice is at the core of hundreds of movements around the world. Justice sits upon a scale, which at one end seeks to merely restructure and/or reform and at the other, dissents from the status quo, and/or chooses to engage in systemic change, rebellions and uprisings.

Despite this, within the UK, there remains a pervasive idea and expectation, that in any given situation the legal system affords its population equality before the law while in reality, justice is widely qualified according to race, religion, ability and socioeconomic status. For example, in 2015, under the heading Social injustice' is killing 200,000 people in the UK every year’, Professor Michael Marmot (UCL Epidemiology & Public Health) said more than 200,000 people in the UK were dying prematurely because of social inequalities that risked becoming entrenched. Such a pronouncement is nothing new in this country. Historically, there are centuries of evidence pertaining to individuals and groups from amongst those identified as racialised, minoritised and vulnerable falling victim to a succession of grave injustices, suggesting injustice has long been entrenched in the UK. Unfortunately there are far too many examples to show the imbalance of justice against those without social privilege.

The United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC), established in 1997 is a coalition of families, friends and supporters of all those affected by deaths in police, prison and psychiatric custody, regardless of ethnicity. This network also includes families who have been fighting for justice for their loved ones for many years, including Leon Patterson who died in police custody in 1992, Rocky Bennett who died in psychiatric custody in 1998 and Roger Sylvester who died after being restrained by police in 1999. It is telling that if one now visits the website of INQUEST, it has been

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updated to include the horrific, and absolutely avoidable, “entirely predictable”, Grenfell Tower fire.

Underneath an infographic commemorating the names of the 72 innocent lives confirmed lost, 18 of whom were children, reads the caption: “We hope to ensure families have access to truth, justice and accountability in the way that those affected by previous disasters, such as Hillsborough, have had to fight for. No stone must be left unturned, the truth about this tragedy must be exposed and those responsible brought to account”. The events of 14 June 2017 left an indelible stain on not only the North Kensington landscape but on the global city that is London as a whole. Local people continue to experience trauma, hearts and minds have been both metaphorically and visibly scarred; healing is a long way off.

Prior to June last year, North Kensington’s diverse populace was already a community on the frontline in a battle against a ruthless local authority hell bent on implementing a dangerous ‘regeneration’ programme designed to put profit before people. Grenfell is an example of the worst case scenario. It reveals people with faces that did not fit the desired gentrification ‘masterplan’, the voices of those who were ignored - unveiling many cases where legitimate concerns were silenced by threats of legal action - and the lives of those who were ultimately not considered as valuable as the land on which their homes were built. In common with many other parts of inner-city London and increasingly other major UK cities, RBKC, known widely amongst residents in the north as the ‘rotten borough’ is an extremely ‘divided borough’. The socio-political history of RBKC legitimately earns it the eponymous title of ‘a tale of two cities’.

There is a distinct feeling that the civilian population inhabiting the tower and the wider area were indeed subject to violence, the deaths of at least 72 people being the ultimate transgression, as well as of course the total destruction of the property. In his opening statement to the Grenfell Public Inquiry, Imran Khan, solicitor for Bereaved, Survivors and Residents placed the issues of race, religion and/or social class as central to the pursuit for justice in the case, citing institutional racism as the dominant factor in the neglect and mistreatment of the former tenants.

On 20 November 2016, co-editor of the Grenfell Action Group’s now seemingly prophetic blog, Edward Daffarn wrote:

“Only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of the KCTMO, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety

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legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders. It is our conviction that a serious fire in a tower block or similar high-density residential property is the most likely reason that those who wield power at the KCTMO will be found out and brought to justice!”

Hence it is against this historical narrative that the North Kensington community has organised itself into three main groupings all primarily focused on the attainment of justice. Grenfell United (GU) is the main group, comprised of the survivors and bereaved from the tower, whose objective is, “Working together to provide as a strong, unified, independent and dignified voice for all those who survived or lost loved ones in the fire…”.

As with GU, Grenfell Speaks (GS) also formed in June 2017 in the aftermath of the fire. GS is an online platform to support the Grenfell Tower survivors and bring about positive change. The group has an active online presence on Facebook and Twitter where it shares news, events, films and interviews on everything related to the Grenfell community.

Justice 4 Grenfell’s four objectives include coordinating information so that justice can be attained without delay and in an open and transparent manner.

At the heart of this horrific incident is an overriding yearning for justice for all those affected. When Grenfell residents objected to the deadly cladding and protested against poor conditions in the building, they were not only shut down but threatened and, or, intimidated by KCTMO staff. Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made to RBKC were also met with threats of legal action. Fola Kafidiya-Oke, then Head of Governance & Company Secretary at KCTMO refused requests for FOI, falsely claiming the organisation was not subject to FOI legislation because it was not a public body.

Many believe the last five years have seen organisations like the Westway Trust and Notting Hill Housing (now merged with Genesis) place unjust practices at their core. Campaigning groups like Save Wornington College, Save North Kensington Library and Save Our Silchester have conversely placed the demand for social justice at their core. In recent months, in the shadow of Grenfell, all three campaigns have been to some extent, successful in their quest for justice.

The idea of justice is more than philosophical rhetoric. Rather, it ought to be a social contract between the state and all members of society, tangible and achievable. Not as it is now, an unattainable illusion for the racialised, minoritised and/or impoverished. Campaigners and protestors in miscarriage of justice cases, such as the formidable Tottenham Rights project initiator, Stafford Scott, who works for The Monitoring Group, frequently uses the slogan “No Justice, Just US” to critique what the neoliberalist Friedrich Hayek coined “The ‘Mirage’ of Social Justice”.

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But of course, justice for Grenfell must also be framed within the wider discourse of repeated failures by the state. Tragically, communities such as Hillsborough, still, after 28 years, continue to await justice. In a July 2017 article entitled ‘Hillsborough families are still waiting 28 years later - don't let Grenfell survivors go through the same agony’, journalist Rachael Bletchley wrote that “If Grenfell Tower families have to fight for truth like Hillsborough’s the “start of the end” will not come until 2045. And nobody should ever again have to face such a long wait for justice.”

On 1 July 2017, the families of the 96 Hillsborough victims finally glimpsed hope when six men were charged with criminal offences relating to the deaths, lies told and for perverting the course of justice. However, the fight for justice for the families of the Hillsborough victims is far from over.

Words of abuse Sadly Grenfell’s quest for justice has and continues to be plagued by trolls working for some of the independent and mainstream media, who are attempting to tarnish the community’s reputation with contemptuous headlines and misinformation.

One of the most notable examples is Andrew O’Hagan’s ‘The Tower’; extract published in the London Review of Books. It was released 7 June 2018 to coincide with the start of the public inquiry. O’Hagan – editor at large at Esquire and contributing editor to the London Review of Books and Granta magazine – is accused of not only distorting personal accounts of survivors and members of the community to fit his own agenda, but also of lying about his true motives in order to gain access to these vulnerable, traumatised people.

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Amongst the contents of his publication is a defence of two former RBKC councillors: Rock Feilding-Mellen, the then deputy council leader in charge of housing, and former council leader Nick Paget-Brown, who is represented as a ‘nice chap’. At the same time, he mounts a slanderous attack on the firefighters who risked their lives to save others during the event. Of the many well-written and just responses to this, is a spoken word piece ‘You'll never edit Grenfell’, by rapper and poet Potent Whisper:

“Stories are powerful things. But the real power, is held by the writer The person who decides what the story might contain And in relation to “The Tower” and the fire O’Hagan writes his-story with every single page”

It is significant that Margaret Aspinall, chairwoman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, who lost her son James, 18, at Hillsborough, urged the Grenfell families to “get mobilised as soon as possible” in their fight for justice.

So when will there be the possibility of justice for the Bereaved, Survivors and Relatives, and indeed the entire North Kensington community? If at all it will be a long time coming because the Grenfell Tower Inquiry stated that it is unlikely that phase 2 of the public hearings will begin before the end of 2019, which will be over two years since the event. Then, of course, there will be the waiting period for the outcome of the inquiry. In addition the Metropolitan police have indicated that it is unlikely to be able to file a submission to the CPS is until late 2021, which will be four and half years after the fire. The publication of any final inquiry report will follow phase 2 hearings. Detective Superintendent Matt Bonner, who leads the investigation into the fire, said: “We have always said our investigation will be thorough, exploring all reasonable lines of enquiry and examining all the available evidence. Similar assurances were given by the Mets investigation team at a series of community meetings in North Kensington at the end of April and earlier on last month. The crucial question is will they really be able to deliver justice for the 72 lives lost and the trauma caused to so many? In reality the Met have a poor track record of delivering justice and even if the culprits were held accountable those affected would have had to endure the burden of waiting far too many years.

In the essay 'Literary Justice? Poems from Guantanamo Bay Prison Camp', Elisabeth Weber critiques the union between the denial of legal justice and the failure to secure it.

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The failure of one sphere of justice leads to other forms of injustice because of the inherent systemic inequity upon which injustice thrives.

In ‘I Write What I Like’, the great Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko, who was murdered on 12 September 1977 by the injustices of South African apartheid while in captivity, wrote:

“There exists amongst men, because they are men, a solidarity through which each shares responsibility for every injustice and every wrong committed in the world and especially for crimes that are committed in his presence or of which he cannot be ignorant. If I do not do whatever I can to prevent them, I am an accomplice in them”.

The Grenfell MediaWatch team are not prepared to be complicit in the injustice of the Grenfell atrocity.

Antiuniversity Event: Media Watching in the Aftermath of Grenfell

When: On the 22 June 2019, 4-6PM Where: Outside The Maxilla Social club / The wall of truth 2 Maxilla Walk, Notting Hill, London W10 6SW

In a fast-moving world of 24-hour news cycles, a persistent, independent critical analysis of the mainstream media is one of the most effective ways to stay empowered. In this workshop members of the Grenfell MediaWatch team will share some of the principles and methods of media watching as a tactic that can be used to challenge state power. If you are thinking about becoming a citizen journalist and want hints and tips to know how, join us and learn how a variety of published information can be used to help level the media playing field between the people and the politicians that do them a disservice. The Grenfell MediaWatch team are a group of volunteers working together to help support the Grenfell community with focused media and political analysis after the tragic fire on 14th June 2017.

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Some Key Questions on the Stay Put Policy One thing we’ve learned from media coverage on Grenfell Tower is that the London Fire Brigade’s (LFB) application of the ‘stay put’ policy has come under heavy review. What are some of the questions we should really be asking? By Dr Angelina Osborne

After 72 victims lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower fire, many of the bereaved and survivors have questioned the wisdom of the ‘stay put policy’. This policy, which differs to advice for a house fire, is based on the assumption that purpose-built flats have some protection already built into the walls to stop the fire from spreading, known as compartmentation. Therefore, leaving the flat could make someone more vulnerable to smoke in the hallways, while descending residents could hinder the response unit’s efforts by clogging up the stairwells; consequently, it is safer to remain in your flat until the emergency services can reach you and lead you to safety.

After the inquest into the Lakanal House fire of 2009, a campaign was launched by the London Fire Brigade called ‘Know the Plan’, reiterating the stay put policy:

If there is a fire in your block of flats but not inside your flat, it’s usually safer to stay put and call 999.

This policy, which the LFB says is set by the building, is dependent on several key factors: whether the fire separation between flats is such that the fire is confined to only one flat; or if the building is designed to withstand fire. In the majority of fire incidents, this policy is effective. In the case of Grenfell and Lakanal however, the fire spread rapidly to other flats; and in the case of Grenfell, the cladding installed aided the rapid spread of the fire. In the cases of these incidents, the ‘stay put’ policy proved ineffective and fatal. A key question in regards to Grenfell is given that the fire spread so rapidly, why did 90 minutes pass before it was abandoned?

The policy’s efficacy has come under intense scrutiny during the Grenfell Inquiry currently in session. Three years before the tragedy, all fire authorities were advised to train key staff to determine when the policy should be abandoned. It has been suggested that this

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training, which was outsourced to a private contractor, Babcock International, may not have taken place.

If this is true, firefighters were ill-prepared for what they were confronted with on 14 June 2017. This lack of preparedness is further borne out by the testimony of one of the firefighters at the scene, Alex De St Aubin. He stated that he had not been trained to deal with fires when compartmentation failed. Did compartmentation fail because of the cladding?

The decision to abandon the policy was taken at 2.47 am – over two hours after the fire had begun and only after the severity of the blaze was witnessed on TV monitors. That prompted Deputy Assistant Commissioner Adrian Fenton to confer with Jo Smith, the senior operations manager, and the decision was made to abandon the policy.

The LFB was called to Grenfell at 12.54 am and four fire engines arrived on the scene at 12.59 am. By 1.09 am, the fire was reported as becoming external to the building; by 1.26 am, according to mobile phone footage the fire had reached the top floor on the east side of the tower, less than 30 minutes after firefighters had arrived. By 1.42 am it had spread to the north side; ten minutes later it was moving to the eastern side, towards the south in the other direction. By 2.10 am multiple fires were seen burning inside the building; four minutes earlier, the fire brigade had declared the fire a ‘major incident’.

The sequence of events outlined above shows the fire spread with incredible speed – within an hour and 10 minutes the fire had engulfed the tower and had spread to other flats. In her report to the inquiry, fire safety engineer Dr Barbara Lane stated that the stay put policy had failed by 1.26 am. Yet the decision to abandon the policy was not taken until one hour and 20 minutes later. The fire, by this time, had spread to a degree and with such speed that perhaps if residents had been instructed to leave their homes earlier, more might have survived. However, the cladding material, which is yet to be determined whether it had been tested by the local authority or the LFB, means that this assertion is yet to be proven.

The external cladding on Grenfell Tower was a material consisting of aluminium sheets bonded to a polyethene (plastic) core, which has been cited as being highly combustible. Fire safety experts have stated that strong evidence supports the theory that this material was the primary cause of the fire’s spread. It has also been noted that the building’s smoke extraction system was

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not working; neither was there a ‘wet riser’ – a water-filled pump running up the building to be used in the event of a fire.

Channel 4’s current affairs documentary programme Dispatches has suggested the London Fire Brigade bears some responsibility to the deaths as a consequence of systemic failures within the organisation, in particular, the stay put policy that proved tragically ineffective on the night of 14 June 2017. Furthermore, a lack of training to facilitate a mass evacuation was also put forward as a contributing factor to the significant loss of life. Using interviews of survivors and the bereaved, senior LFB staff, and clips of evidence given by firefighters and senior staff along with footage of the way the fire engulfed the building in a short space of time, the programme presented a somewhat simplistic account that laid the blame squarely at the door of the LFB.

The claim that the building could have been evacuated in seven minutes if the stay put policy had been abandoned in good time is highly emotive and untested. Arguably, the factors that contributed to the 72 deaths are varied and wide- ranging, and include issues around class, race and poverty; the austerity policies instituted by central government, the systemic failures within RBKC, in particular, their unwillingness to heed repeated warnings by residents to the safety concerns within the building.

Grenfell Action Group has rejected the claims of the programme, which they contend is an attempt to scapegoat the LFB for the deaths. They cite the refurbishment of the tower, constant inability on the part of the council to heed the warnings of the residents of the inadequate fire protection and safety mechanisms, and criminal negligence on the part of the contractors and sub-contractors in the use of materials that were highly flammable.

A key point to consider is the fact that the LFB has experienced significant cuts to their budget since 2010. More than 10,000 fire fighters have lost their jobs nationwide. In London, ten fire stations have been closed, 27 fire engines axed and more than 600 fire fighters have been cut. Consequently, the fire service is finding it increasingly difficult to respond to fire incidents effectively and expediently.

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As more information regarding the fire and the condition of Grenfell Tower is being disseminated into the public sphere, serious questions arise regarding health and safety concerns at Grenfell, and beyond.

● With the terrifying speed of the fire, why did over two hours pass before the decision to abandon the ‘stay put’ policy was made by senior staff at LFB? ● Had a 72D visit taken place at Grenfell, where checks would have been undertaken to ascertain whether there was a wet riser? ● Were there any pre-prepared firefighting plans for the tower? ● Had the cladding been checked by the LFB in terms of its safety, or been fire tested prior to its installation? ● Had RBKC held its own investigations on the safety of the cladding? ● Was the LFB involved in the health and safety process where issues were highlighted? ● What contingency plans are in place in the event of such a catastrophe where the policies fail? And whose responsibility was it to make that policy, RBKC or LFB?

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Public Inquiry Update - Phase 2 Phase 2 of the Grenfell Tower inquiry has been delayed and in the absence of reporting here are some key updates on where you can find information to date. By Dawn Beswick

The Public Inquiry timeline is updated whenever more time needs to be allocated for the unanticipated examination of extra expert/witness testimony or evidence. The path to phase 2 updates can be found here: https://assets.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/inline-files/Path%20to%20P2%20hearings%20English.pdf.

Phase 2 is expected to include evidence from the Metropolitan Police’s criminal investigation ‘Operation Northleigh’. New sentencing guidelines were issued after detectives investigating the Grenfell tragedy carried out three interviews under caution examining whether gross negligence manslaughter, corporate manslaughter and breaches of the Health and Safety Act were committed in connection with the fire. The Sentencing Council advised judges that manslaughter offenses cover a wide range of circumstances with jail terms up to 40 years. In cases of gross negligence manslaughter, where the accused breaches a duty of care towards a victim resulting in their death, there is a sentencing range of between one and 18 years. June 2019, the Met have released a statement to say that 13 people have been interviewed under caution. No names have been released.

“Manslaughter offenses vary hugely – some cases are not far from being an accident, while others may be just short of murder. While no sentence can make up for the loss of life, this guideline will help ensure sentencing that properly reflects the culpability of the offender and the unique facts of each case.” - Sentencing Council member Lord Justice Holroyde

The Met has finished its forensic examination of the site and its commissioner, Cressida Dick, said that detectives would need extra government funding over several years to help cover the costs of the investigation. A list of issues that form the basis of phase 2 has been published on the Inquiry website.

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Where's the money? The following Government link is where the updates on public charitable donations received for the Grenfell Tower Fire and its survivors can be found: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/grenfell-tower-fire-charitable-funds-raised-and-distributed

£817M Housing Budget underspend in 2017 was returned to Central Government in 2018.

The Audit Office in 2018 has reported that it is “estimated that 10% of unitary authorities and county councils have less than three years’ reserves left if they continue to deploy them at current rates, leaving them vulnerable to potential insolvency.” Some councils are going broke such as Northampton Council, which has already declared insolvency.

RBKC as an individual borough had £274m usable reserves in 2017 and £300m usable reserves in 2016. It also received £24m from Protector, the Norwegian insurer of the Grenfell Tower in two tranches, the second payout taking place in September 2018, which was specifically to cover the building. Although discussions within the insurance industry say it's likely to be complex, further insurance investigations are anticipated, and RBKC is likely to be awarded even more money. Zurich Municipal was the previous insurer while Protector became the property and liability insurer in April 2017. Under the contract with Zurich, RBKC paid them £680,000 for cover for the 2016-2017 policy. With Protector, the total premium arranged was £2.2m with RBKC paying £434,857 annually.

As of February 2019, RBKC has spent £2.2m on legal fees. It is anticipated that the fees may be as much as £6m within the next two years. A statement by RBKC reads:

"This is not a court case. The council is not spending money on hiring a crack legal team to defend itself at all costs. We have no interest in defending anything at the inquiry, we are a public authority, and we want the truth. Not only for the victims and the bereaved, but for the whole UK as we face up to issues of fire safety and safe housing right across the country. We have to make hundreds of thousands of documents available for the inquiry and the police investigation for both to establish a conclusive view and deliver the truth. This takes time, it takes resources and it costs money".

The Met had claimed for £11m in 2017/18 and £13.5m in 2018/19 but was awarded £10.1m and £11.4m respectively - a shortfall of £3m from their requests.

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has so far cost £10m.

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Will the government be giving evidence? This is not an exhaustive list but those names we should be highlighting and paying attention to include Gavin Barwell, Chief of Staff to Theresa May, who received information in 2015 on potential fire risks and an urgent need for improved regulations. Brandon Lewis has passed the buck to the 'fire industry' when suggestions arose that tougher regulations were needed but this decision would hit building rates. Sir Eric Pickles rejected the call for retrofitting of sprinklers and for landlords to provide more information to firefighters.

As examples, these three have not been called to give evidence to the Inquiry. Even though the Experts’ findings uncovered serious safety failings and were received by the Government two years prior to the Grenfell Tower fire. The report was marked as ‘confidential’ and no action was taken.

It is worth mentioning that it is also likely that a Parliament Select Committee will be set up [or demanded] after the Inquiry, as it's the only elected group that can demand an answer from the government and get it. Whether the answer is adequate is up for debate. Theresa May agreed that the government would answer a Select Committee demand within thirty days.

When will we see those responsible and accountable behind bars? The Met continues to gather evidence and has released a statement to say that the Criminal Investigation findings are likely to begin in 2021, due to the amount of information, they have to go through [33 million documents], as well as the number of people involved across 383 organisations they have identified so far.

30 years on and with some of the witnesses dead, are we looking at another Hillsborough? The first report from Sir Martin Moore-Bick on Phase 1 is due for publication autumn 2019.

“In a letter seen by Inside Housing, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the inquiry judge, also revealed that he will not be making any “urgent” recommendations ahead of the phase one report – which is now set to be delayed until the summer – despite calls from survivors for him to do so. Sir Martin has been given the power to make any necessary recommendations for change to Theresa May to prevent a repeat of the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people

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in June 2017. He has instructed six of the inquiry’s experts to write reports on what these recommendations should conclude, as he prepares his report following the end of seven months of evidence about the blaze But in a letter to core participants last month, his solicitor Caroline Featherstone revealed he will limit any recommendations strictly to the evidence discussed in the first phase, which dealt almost exclusively with the night of the blaze”.

From his letter, Moore-Bick may be drawing a line between the Inquiry; with decision- making and action to the government. Inside Housing also reported that this shouldn’t delay any organisations or companies taking immediate action around building, construction, health, safety and policy decisions. This could indicate that Phase 2 could be delayed even further as the findings from the experts may align with the Met’s criminal investigation.

One of the differences to Hillsborough is that we are in the 21st century electronic age, the evidence is clearly out there. One of the similarities to Hillsborough is that the reliance is on those organisations and individuals responsible and accountable to willingly produce the evidence, within a reasonable timeframe. Hillsborough also shows that delay in seeking justice can also result in witness recollection blurring over time. Justice can then mean that those in the dock may walk free.

The following is an extract from the INQUEST report, published in May 2019. Below, it lists the recommendations from the Grenfell survivors who were interviewed.

"What do families want? Suggestions on good practice Having made their observations on what had been, families brought their lived experience to identify a series of suggestions for what good practice could look like in the future. In many cases these involved practical and achievable solutions to some of the problems they had encountered; a centralised information hub offering support, advice and pastoral care following a mass fatality; trained and experienced key workers; a unique case number thus avoiding the emotional toll of having to constantly re-tell their story each time there was contact with the authorities; free independent mental health provision; specialist independent advice on rights and expert legal representation;

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The families’ key suggestions regarding the second phase of the Inquiry concentrated on putting families at the heart of the Inquiry process; the need for an independent diverse decision-making Inquiry panel; meaningful consultation on selecting the venue; practical improvements ensuring facilities are family friendly; support for families whose first language is not English e.g. skilled interpreters proficient in the specific dialects spoken by individual families; re-examination of procedures for questioning witnesses to enable family lawyers to directly ask questions; adoption of a duty of candour by public authorities and public entities; Further suggestions which would have a positive impact on encouraging participation in the Inquiry process include; • seminars to un-pick technical jargon; advance notice of hearings and prompt disclosure of legal papers; support for employers enabling families to take time off work without losing annual leave entitlement; There was recognition of the need for a duty on the Government to implement recommendations made by the Inquiry and systematic monitoring and follow up on implementation”. Source: https://www.inquest.org.uk/inquest-key-documents

New Panel Members for Phase 2 On 30 May 2019, the Prime Minister Theresa May appointed Ms Thouria Istephan and Professor Nabeel Hamdi as the two new panel members for Phase 2 of the Grenfell Tower public Inquiry. Thouria Istephan is partner and Construction Design Management (CDM) Manager at Foster + Partners, with responsibility for the application of Construction (Design and Management) Regulations – strategically and operationally – as well as global health and safety compliance. Nabeel Hamdi is currently Professor Emeritus of Housing and Urban Development at the School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University. He has consulted on housing, participatory action planning and upgrading of slums in cities to all major international development agencies, and to charities and NGOs worldwide.

Please also refer to our Grenfell MediaWatch Facebook page ‘Notes’ section for further updates and latest publications.

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Suicide in the Aftermath of the Grenfell Tower Fire Is there a correlation between suicide rates and the Grenfell Tower tragedy? We need all the facts for the truth. By Isis Amlak

When I was a girl during the 70s I enjoyed watching MASH, a TV series about the staff of a US army hospital during the Korean War who used humour to keep their sanity in the face of conflict’s horrors. The theme song always fascinated me Suicide Is Painless, a statement that as an adult I learnt is the antithesis of the impact of that way of dying. Suicide is many things but not painless, not for the person who takes her/his own life or for those left behind.

There are many reasons why people commit suicide, often a combination of factors are the cause. It is often an act made during a storm of strong emotions and life stresses rather than after careful consideration. Open any book on the subject matter or simply Google ‘reasons for suicide’ and among the reasons listed will be depression, mental illnesses, loss/fear of loss, social isolation and traumatic stress. Suicide is often a cry for help that wasn’t heard.

Trauma is a psychological reaction to a harmful or life-threatening occurrence that is outside the range of normal experience and beyond control. Trauma’s impact is insidious, pervasive, life-changing, and enduring. It most affects those vulnerable because of age or other personal factors. It influences responses to future stresses. People who have experienced trauma are also at a greater risk of suicide.

The Grenfell atrocity is a classic example of a traumatic incident, a man-made disaster that led to devastating loss. The details read like a textbook example, a rapidly burning building housing families, friends and neighbours in the middle of a close knit community, relatives, friends and neighbours watching as the building is rapidly engulfed in huge flames, the sounds of screams being heard by all those present, the trapped sending their last goodbyes via texts and social media; a real-life horror story.

As a local resident I was on the ground along with so many others on the morning of the event. The fire had died out, many of our community had died with it, thick black smoke billowed above our heads and there was black burnt debris scattered across our streets. I walked around familiar streets in a semi-daze and saw familiar faces echoing the same sentiments. Two of those faces were Tim Burke and Amanda Beckles, both friends whom I had known for many years. They were both actively and effectively involved in the local area before and subsequent to Grenfell, both extremely committed and greatly affected

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by what we all knew was a preventable catastrophe orchestrated by the actions a money loving corrupt local authority; the irony of its motto 'What a good thing it is to dwell in unity' is crushing. Like most of us, Tim and Amanda knew people in the tower, to a greater or lesser extent.

Like most of us, they were both determined to support our community to the best of their ability and they both did in a number of ways. Amongst other things, Tim helped organise a charity art auction to raise funds for the former Grenfell tenants and Amanda set up the Grenfell Tower Monitoring Project through which she, ran Chat Back™ discussion sessions formulated to get communities talking to, and supporting, one another. They were highly skilled, fun, warm and possessed brilliant minds, great friends.

When I found out that Tim had taken his life on 17 August last year, I was shocked and saddened. Amanda’s death by suicide, estimated to have occurred on 13 December last year had a deeply profound impact on me and it will take a very long time for me to fully recover from the distress and trauma; I am obviously not the only one reeling from the repercussions. So the cycle continues a traumatised community further traumatised by suicides of close friends. Tim and Amanda are not the only two members of the community to take their lives since Grenfell, there have been others who have attempted and succeeded. For the sake of confidentiality, I will avoid disclosing any details but anecdotally we in the local community are aware of numerous cases.

The question that I and others are asking is: Is there and any correlation between the suicide rates and the Grenfell Tower fire?

Many of us believe that there has been a marked increase and that there is a connection. The effects of mass trauma, the devastating loss of life, young, old, neighbours, friends, colleagues, faces we saw in our local shops, parks or on the street; loss triggers loss. The impact of trauma on people who may already have been battling their own demons, the failure of the state leading to a sense of abandonment, despair and in some cases, helplessness. What of the environmental impact of toxins from the burnt chemical saturated materials released into the air we breathe and absorb through our skin?

There has been a sense that we have been poisoned – many of us in North Kensington have reported symptoms consistent with the effects of neurotoxicity; sometimes it’s as simple as just not feeling right. Of course, as is its modus operandi RBKC has, until very recently, avoided taking this issue seriously and putting in place any facilities for toxicology screening.

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At the Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Committee on 8 May, the Bi-borough Suicide Prevention Action Plan (2018 -2021) was on the agenda. The report, by the Director of Public Health asserts that “there has been no significant change over time in the suicide rates for Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster as numbers are relatively small.” Yet the figures were not up-to-date; it cites figures for 2015-17. The so-called findings in that report do not stack up with local knowledge of what is happening on the ground and were contested at the meeting. It is so like RBKC and their friend in Public Health England to downplay the reality of the impact of the Grenfell Tower massacre; I wonder why…

However, it is widely recognised that certain chemicals found in the environment and in common household items have been linked to behavioural and cognitive problems in children. For example, the impact of neurotoxins such as lead and ethyl alcohol, is well- documented. Neurotoxins interfere with the electrical activity of nerves and inhibit their optimal function which results in either overstimulation or the disruption for their communication process.

The community update on the publication of Professor Anna Stec's research into environmental contamination following the Grenfell Tower fire, published on 28 March, found that soil samples collected within 50m of the tower contained amongst other substances, materials ‘that are potentially toxic to the nervous system’. There is evidence that neurotoxins reduce nerve cells’ life span and have been linked to brain diseases including Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s. Studies have shown that they can cause aggression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, depression, insomnia and migraines amongst other ailments. Exposure to neurotoxicity can result in abnormal psychology which in turn could lead to the conditions for suicidal thoughts and ultimately actions.

So I and others are left wondering what would be the potential impact of the release of neurotoxins following the trauma of Grenfell on members of the community who might have suffered with anxiety or depression in the past. It is surely not beyond the realm of possibility that people like Tim and Amanda, who spent a vast amount of time on the ground following the fire, all the while breathing in and ingesting the chemical content of the fumes and the debris, were neurologically affected. How many more of us have had our brain chemistry affected, how many more of us will take our own lives? How many more victims of Grenfell Tower will there be?

When will RBKC take this matter seriously and act in the best interests of its residents in North Kensington by implementing a comprehensive enhanced screening programme instead of spending its time trying to cover its back by for example, executing a recent cleaning regime in the buildings close to the tower, shortly before testing for chemicals is due to begin, conveniently removing evidence of toxicity? When will the authorities

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(RBKC, Public Health England, and the Government) finally stop covering each other’s backs?

In North Kensington we need answers to these questions. We do not know how many others are at risk and want to lose any other precious soul in our community.

RIEP Tim Burke and Amanda Beckles.

HopeLine UK If you are a young person at risk of suicide or are worried about someone at risk of suicide: Call: 0800 068 4141 / Text: 0778 620 9697 / Email: [email protected] https://papyrus-uk.org/

Samaritans Call: 116 123 (free of charge from a landline or mobile) / Email: [email protected] www.samaritans.org 24 hr helpline offering emotional support for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those which may lead to suicide

Support (Bereaved by suicide) A network of organisations who support people who have been bereaved by suicide. www.supportaftersuicide.org.uk https://www.nspa.org.uk

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Recommendations Some recommendations based on our analysis of the current personal, social and political situation of those affected.

1. Immediate Action: Direct support for existing wellbeing services and activities with a focus on strengthening their capacity and outreach capabilities to assist those living with severe depression and at risk of suicide or engaging in self-harm.

2. Immediate Action: The rehousing of all Grenfell survivors and affected nearby residents in suitable permanent accommodation with lifelong tenancies that are rent and service charge free.

3. Immediate Action: The creation of a central Charitable Trust fund to hold all donations with Grenfell survivors/direct representatives established as board members and trustees.

4. Immediate Action: The allocation of long term sites, with permanent state funding to host community services offering healing, education, therapy, self-help, employment and recreational services for Grenfell survivors and nearby residents.

5. Immediate Action: The purchase of appropriate aerial platforms by fire brigade services with tower blocks within their service area.

6. Legislation: The removal of combustible cladding and installation of fire sprinklers and working fire alarms on all UK tower blocks.

7. Prosecution: Both the public inquiry and police investigation to conclude with recommendations for criminal charges with custodial sentences to be made against those responsible for the mass loss of life and property at Grenfell Tower on 14th June 2017. Suspects facing prosecution should include, but not limited to, those from the political, construction and housing management sectors. Both investigations should be thorough, yet close in a timely manner as to serve the process of natural justice.

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“For the community, by the community” May the Ancestors guide and protect us. Aṣẹ

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