New Council Leader Booed At Meeting On Grenfell Tower Disaster

New Council Leader Booed At Meeting On Grenfell Tower Disaster

The new leader of the council at the centre of the Grenfell Tower fire was heckled and booed as she addressed survivors and local residents at a public meeting.

Boos and shouts of "shame on you" rang out from the chamber as Elizabeth Campbell was formally elected new leader of Kensington and Chelsea council after being nominated by the local Conservative group.

She was heckled as she addressed the chamber in Kensington Town Hall and at times could not be heard amid the yells of "resign", prompting calls for order.

A public gallery packed with former Grenfell Tower residents and an over-spill room containing at least 150 community members and volunteers were present in addition to the full council.

Six extra chairs were placed on the chamber floor underneath the public gallery at the request of survivors, some of whom indicated they may wish to speak during the meeting.

At least one person was let in midway through the meeting after furious banging on the locked door separating the public gallery from the chamber floor was heard.

Outside, a group of demonstrators holding Justice for Grenfell placards were gathered.

Addressing survivors in the chamber, Cllr Campbell said: "I am deeply sorry for the grief and trauma that you are suffering.

"I am truly sorry that we did not do more to help you when you needed it the most."

A woman who said her teenager niece had perished in the blaze addressed the chamber.

She said her brother and sister-in-law could not speak in public because "their pain is too huge".

She told councillors: "I think you should be highly embarrassed by the response," adding that it had been "totally inadequate".

She told the council a "simple acknowledgement of an email would have gone a long way", referring to a previous attempt to get in contact.

The family of the deceased "are being treated like cattle", another woman said as she took the microphone.

"How can we have faith in you, come to you guys for help?", she asked the floor.

"You know, I can't really talk," she said, unable to continue, and was applauded as she finished speaking.

Piers Thompson, the lead petitioner of a petition calling for residents of the Silchester estate, near to the tower, to be treated fairly and be given more decision-making power, also spoke.

He told the council that if they had spent as much time considering the safety of the tower as they had controlling the evening's meeting, "maybe things would have been different".

Shortly after a survivor told the room he had been living in a hotel room with one double bed for him, his wife and three children since the tragedy.

"I was forgotten about," he explained.

The main problem residents were facing was a lack of action, he said.

"You know who done something for us?", he asked. "The residents of north Kensington. Our community. Our neighbours."

For the main part of two hours, accounts from survivors and local community members were heard, with the meeting's agenda seemingly put on hold.

At points, muffled crying and shouting could be heard from outside the chamber.

A survivor from the 16th floor, who gave his name as Hamid, said he was feeling "really tired" and had "had enough".

"I need a place to go and start my life," he said. "I'm not asking for something big."

He told the room of his decision to run for his life through the smoke-filled stairwell of the high-rise block.

He said: "I am very lucky because that night my mum, she was not there so she survived.

"Otherwise it's just going to be ashes or a missing person. Thank God she's with me.

"We need to move on. We want to go to work - kids got to go to school."

At just after 9pm, everybody who wanted to speak had been given the opportunity to address the room and the suspended agenda was resumed.

Dr Barry Quirk was appointed interim chief executive and head of paid services as the meeting continued.

Leader of the opposition Robert Atkinson welcomed the appointment and urged him "to be a lion in facing all the challenges that will now be placed upon him".

"The Labour party group will judge him not by what he says but by what he does."

He said: "It is still our preference that commissioners be sent in, in order to establish some order and get some result."

He was "pretty sure" this would happen at some point, he added.

Attention then turned to a petition signed by more than 1,500 people, demanding the resignation of the entire elected leadership of the council and therefore passing the threshold for a debate by councillors.

Lead petitioner and local resident Eve Wedderburn told councillors "we do not recognise your right to govern our community".

She added: "The problem here is not perception, but your actual culpability in an actual crisis."

Newly elected MP for Kensington, Emma Dent Coad, said: "I agree entirely with the petition's demands."

Responding to the petition, Ms Campbell was again heckled.

She said it was an "incredibly traumatic time" for those affected by the fire, which was "made all the more frustrating by the fact that there are so many questions for which we do not yet have the answers".

She said the actions of the council and the Tenant Management Organisation would be investigated, adding: "It is right that we should find out what went so drastically wrong."

She said: "The response of the council was not good enough and indeed the chief executive and leader resigned, and tonight I appointed a fresh leadership.

"We will not continue business as usual and we will rebuild trust, as I said, brick by brick."

Current regeneration plans have been put on hold, she said, adding that she wanted to make sure the community was consulted on any future developments in the borough.

The meeting was temporarily paused after a resident who had just finished giving evidence via a translator either fainted or fell to the ground.

Three medics rushed to her side where she lay on the floor.

The meeting has been formally closed after the resident fell to the ground.

She was helped to her feet by medics and was assisted as she walked from the room, after lying prone on the floor for several minutes. A female companion said that she had collapsed multiple times since the fire.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Cllr Campbell said she was facing a great challenge but was "not yet" considering stepping down.

Of the calls for her resignation she said: "I think it's quite understandable, as I said it comes down to a lack of trust, but I feel I'm stepping up to the challenge rather than stepping down and away from it."

Asked if she had any plans to resign as she stepped away from the camera she replied: "No, not yet".

The next meeting of the council is not scheduled until October 25 - more than three months away.

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