Three officials quit their roles as anger mounts over response to inferno

THREE officials involved with Grenfell Tower resigned yesterday amid mounting anger over the response to the killer inferno.

Nicholas Paget-Brown, leader of Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council, finally bowed to pressure to step down and said he accepted responsibility for ‘perceived failings’.

His deputy, Rock Feilding-Mellen, who was responsible for housing in the borough, resigned at the same time.

Robert Black, chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, which managed the block, had fallen on his sword earlier.

Three years before the blaze, Mr Paget-Brown received a letter from Grenfell residents who claimed officials were ‘brazenly breaking the law’.

He was also widely criticised for the council’s response to the disaster and for saying residents believed ‘sprinklers aren’t the answer’.

The leader’s position became untenable after he attempted to ban the press from the council’s first meeting since the disaster. He later abandoned Thursday’s meeting after a UK High Court judge ordered that journalists and the public be allowed to attend.

Mr Paget-Brown had previously offered to stand down, but his colleagues in the council’s cabinet refused to accept his resignation.

But after senior politicians repeatedly called for his head, he said yesterday: ‘This council has been criticised for failing to answer all the questions that people have. That is properly a matter for the public inquiry. As council leader I have to accept my share of responsibility for these perceived failings.

Allegations of incompetence and malpractice by Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, which tenants said provided an ‘absolutely appalling service’, are likely to form a key part of the police investigation and public inquiry into the disaster which has claimed at least 80 lives.