From waging war on boy-racers to facing fury of community, he was ‘found wanting’
FOR THE 31 years Nicholas Pagetbrown has been a Conservative councillor in Kensington and Chelsea, his time spent in public office has largely been remarkable for just how unremarkable it was.
He had previously waged war with locals who had spat gum out on to the pavement; and taken on the superrich boy-racers who sped through the borough’s streets in supercars.
The tragedy of Grenfell Tower changed all that. Mr Paget-brown, 60, who for three decades avoided controversy, has spent the past fortnight stumbling and lurching from one leadership crisis to another.
A graduate of York University, he was elected to the council in 1986, combining his local authority duties with a career in marketing, working for, among others, Reuters and Finsbury Data Services.
He made his money, according to fellow councillors, from Pelham Research, an environmental and public affairs consultancy which he ran from his flat in a smart Chelsea street. Hugh Grant, among other celebrities, is a regular in the local pub.
One former colleague said Mr Paget-brown, urbane and charming, seemed well suited to the role of leader – he was elected four years ago – but that he had been found out in a
‘Until you are tested you never know how you will react. Nick was tested and he has been found wanting’
crisis. “The difficulty of all this is until you are tested you never know how you will react. Nick was tested and he has been found wanting.” Mr Pagetbrown, who lives alone, had been a regular poster on Facebook and twitter. Tellingly, his last message was posted on Twitter on June 10, a few days before the inferno. “Is it really true that Leftists bought and burned Conservative supporting papers on polling day? Fear of pluralism – frightening mindset,” he wrote two days after the general election.
It invited a series of angry responses following the fire. “How about the burning tower full of ignored people that your s----- council oversaw?” came one such reaction. Others were more vile still.
The quiet man of Kensington had become public enemy number one. He had to go.