The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
‘They chose to ignore us’
People who raised concerns about the safety of Grenfell Tower before the fatal fire were considered “troublemakers” by the local authority, the head of the residents’ group has claimed.
Olesea Matcovschi accused the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea of fobbing off residents when they tried to speak about the state of local buildings before the disaster.
And Ms Matcovschi, chairwoman of the Lancaster West Residents’ Association, said the council had not been in touch with it since the fire.
She added that in recent years local residents had “experienced the decline of our buildings – the fabric and material of our homes as they have fallen into dangerous disrepair”.
She told the Press Association: “Whenever we tried to contact the council directly they would not actually let us. They would say we have to speak to them through the TMO (Tenant Management Association).
“Whenever we had concerns they were just ignored or people who were raising the concerns were considered troublemakers.
“And we were not listened to at all, although we knew about the safety issues, we were just ignored. It looks like they chose to ignore us.
“We want to be heard, we want the council to meet with us, finally come over and speak to us, because at the moment they have just chosen to ignore us.
“I don’t understand how it is humanly possible, morally possible, to behave like this with people who were directly affected.
RBKC council leader Nick PagetBrown told Sky News he understood the anger of local people.
He said London and other cities had a lot of “ageing housing stock” that needed refurbishing or replacing, something that was “very controversial at all times”.
He added: “This was a major refurbishment of a tower.
“Now clearly something has gone tragically wrong with it but the intention was to improve the quality of the housing and to ensure heating systems, boilers, central heating, insulation was improved and that was the whole purpose of doing this renovation.”