It’s been five years since the tragedy - why is Grenfell justice on hold?

The stories are devastating and the sense of loss palpable but more, there is still anger.

Listen to anyone involved and it becomes clear why.

We knew shortly after the event that the fire spread so rapidly because the tower – the way it was constructed and the material used – was unsafe.

Changes have been made and similar buildings made safe but this is what astounded me: five years on, not all buildings have been changed.

So, this could happen again.

Social housing exists of these same material – housing families, children, elderly and disabled people – and if a fire started tomorrow, we could be in this position again.

Is that not madness?

On the whole, I’m a believer of justice prevailing – of leaving things to those in power to put right.

But how can anyone who lost a loved one at Grenfell have that faith? Even looking on from afar, I struggle to have belief in the system.

Half a decade on, inquiries are still “ongoing” – and before any criminal prosecutions for charges, including corporate manslaughter begin, they must conclude.

And yet life has been on hold for five long years. As one resident said, when asked if he felt justice was on hold: “No, everything is on hold.”

Are we anaesthetised to the brutality of what happened?

What if it had been my grandad who lived between Dens and Tannadice?

I can remember him waving to me as I got in my car. What if he’d perished because builders and councils had illegally constructed his block of flats?

What if it was your daughter who had been rushed to Ninewells having inhaled deadly amounts of smoke and toxic gasses – only to give birth to your grandchild who would never live?

It sounds harsh even to be asked to imagine it but this is the reality – the absolute hell – these people live with day in and out.

Survivors are trapped in their own heads with memories of children being thrown from windows by parents who realised certain death awaited in the building they’d been told to stay in. Many children didn’t survive the fall.

Those who protest for justice say they are not respected or listened to – for if they were, answers and verdicts would already have been delivered.

And if they were, there is no way Grenfell could ever happen again.

It’s hard not to agree with them.

There are echoes of Hillsborough where families waited 27 years for a verdict that found 96 men, women and children who died on the football terraces in 1989 were unlawfully killed.

These people experienced the devastation of loss too – but also gave their lives to the fight for justice. Lives wrecked for decades.

Must the survivors and families of Grenfell endure the same?

The Grenfell Tower tragedy could have happened right here in Dundee.