YOUR VIEWS

SO THE Grenfell tower block in London, which went up in a massive fire, had recently been renovated with new exterior cladding.

Many witnesses said they saw the fire streaming up the outside of the building through the new cladding which was obviously highly flammable.

I recall that last year there was a report of some highrise buildings on the Gold Coast with similar cladding ( GCB, 26/5/16).

Also an investigation was carried out but the state government and council refused to name the buildings. Is this true? If so, then why not?

I think everyone who lives in a highrise that has been built or ren- ovated in the last 10 years should be demanding the right to know. JENNIFER HORSBURGH, ELANORA

AS A Londoner for 65 years before coming here to Australia, I am sitting watching one of my worst fears coming to reality.

Fire in a tower block is one of the most frightening events that can occur.

Yes, there are concrete stair wells. No, you don’t use the lifts.

But what do you do when the thick acrid smoke fills the only escape routes?

The answer is there is just nowhere to go. The people who build these towers should be brought to book. Those poor folk on the upper floors have no chance whatsoever.

Their children will not have any idea what’s happening before they pass away, overcome by smoke.

Their parents will tragically have the same unsavoury ending. We can only hope and pray that some of them get out alive. FRANK TEWKESBURY, SOUTHPORT WITH this week’s “towering inferno” in London, what is the likelihood of a similar catastrophe happening here? (“Tower of terror hell on earth”, GCB, 15/6).

Admittedly there were previous questions about the Grenfell building being “fire-safe” so how confident can highrise residents here feel that fire safety measures are in place and regularly and efficiently checked? As in London, responsibilities can be neglected. KEN JOHNSTON, ROCHEDALE SOUTH IT IS a great shame that Tony Abbott and a handful of right wing climate deniers in the Liberal Party are holding the country to ransom regarding renewable energy policy and are refusing to act in the national interest.

We seem to get a daily warning from Mr Abbott on a variety of issues. This is the man who asked on Sky News (15/7/09): “If you want to put a price on carbon why not just do it with a simple tax?”

“Why not ask motorists to pay more? Why not ask electricity consumers to pay more?

“It would be burdensome but all taxes are burdensome”.

Then Mr Abbott wrote a leader column in The Australian (24/7/09) supporting Mr Rudd’s Emissions Trading Scheme, writing it is “plausible means to limit carbon emissions”. The hypocrisy of this man has no bounds. RAY ARMSTRONG, TWEED HEADS SOUTH