Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PM slams K&C chiefs and orders task force
THERESA May yesterday ordered a task force to take control of the Grenfell Tower relief effort after branding the local council response “not good enough”.
The panicking PM moved to calm growing anger in the area at the lack of response from Kensington and Chelsea officials.
One furious resident said there has been “nothing” from council chiefs in the wake of the disaster and it has been left to volunteers to provide for the homeless survivors.
The tenant added: “The way the authority has handled things has been terrible. All we want is information and some help.” Mrs May has already pledged £5million to the Grenfell relief fund. But she said after a Downing St meeting yesterday: “The response of the emergency services, NHS and the community has been heroic.
“But, frankly, the support on the ground for families who needed help or basic information in the initial hours after this appalling disaster was not good enough.
“I have ordered immediate action across the board to help victims’ relatives and the survivors.
“I can confirm the £5million emergency fund is now being distributed on the ground so people can buy clothes, food and other essentials. If more funding is required, it will be provided.”
A source added: “The meeting was very much about getting a grip on things. One way to do that is to beef-up the response from the council. Let’s be honest, it hasn’t been great.”
The task force will be made up of executives from other London councils to try to help the situation in Kensington and Chelsea.
It will be managed by City of London chief executive John Barradell. The volunteer relief effort will be run by
PANIC the British Red Cross. But the already raging anger at the council’s shoddy response to the inferno will not be helped by news council bosses gave the go-ahead for a refurbishment of their Kensington Town Hall HQ, costing more than £20million. Residents are still fuming because their fears of a fire at Grenfell Tower had been ignored. Vienna Israel, 35, whose godfather Raymond Bernard is missing, said of the town hall refit: “That makes me really angry. They spend money on their own building while refusing to spend on Grenfell Tower to make it safe.”