154 RBKC Councillors

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Podcast

BBC

News

4.8 • 627 Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2021

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“I think we lacked a little humanity”. The inquiry heard from elected councillors at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Councillor Quentin Marshall said the council “could have done better” after it emerged he sent an email saying he was “not massively sympathetic to general ‘it’s all terrible’ complaints” about the refurbishment works at Grenfell tower. Leader of RBKC Nick Paget-Brown and Councillors Rock Feilding-Mellen, Sam Mackover and Judith Blakeman also gave evidence.

Presenter / Producer: Kate Lamble Producer: Sharon Hemans Researcher: May Cameron Studio Mix: Gareth Jones

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:05.2	Hello and welcome to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry podcast with me, Kate Lamble.
0:10.0	This week, the inquiry relaxed its COVID regulations and allowed a limited number of people
0:14.9	back into the room to watch proceedings.
0:17.5	But several people gathered outside the building in West London to protest. And sometimes during pauses in witness testimony, their shouts could be heard.
0:26.6	Oh, feel the bed!
0:28.6	You have murder on your hat!
0:30.6	These shouts were directed at the elected councillors from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea who were giving evidence.
0:43.2	And during this week, we learnt one councillor said he was not massively sympathetic to complaints about the refurbishment works, which he considered a gift from the state. Another was told of
0:48.7	plans to switch from zinc to aluminium cladding to save money, but didn't ask if there was a difference
0:54.0	in safety between the two. He did discuss if sections of the cladding to save money, but didn't ask if there was a difference in safety
0:54.6	between the two. He did discuss if sections of the cladding should be lime, turquoise or
1:00.4	British racing green. Let's move on to the evidence then. Judith Blatman became a Labour
1:06.2	councillor in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in 1978. In July 2009, she saw a fire in a high-rise
1:13.9	tower block in London, Lackenall House, on the news. Her first thought was Grenfell Tower.
1:19.8	Because there was only the one stairwell, and if you lived on the top floor, it actually took about,
1:24.7	well, I mean, I was quite fit then. It took me about half an hour to walk from the top to the bottom.
1:29.4	The next day, Judith Blakman wrote to the chief executive of the tenant management organisation, which ran the building, and the director of housing at RBKC, asking for risk assessments to examine how people could get out of blocks in the borough in an emergency.
1:43.7	She specifically mentioned Grenfell, whichough in an emergency. She specifically mentioned
1:45.1	Grenfell, which was in her ward. Lead counsel to the inquiry Richard Millett read from her email.
1:50.5	I would like to invite you to accompany me up to the top floor to see how difficult it would be
1:56.5	to get out of this block in the event of an emergency. I look forward to an early response.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.