Cuts Tory and €420k school deal
THE Tory in charge of the Grenfell Tower refurbishment was investigated twice over his role.
Rock Feilding-mellen was probed after Kensington and Chelsea Council approved a scheme to lease a library building to a prep school at which his children were on the waiting list.
The deal gave Notting Hill Prep School favourable terms over 25 years and allowed it to skip the first year’s rent of €420,000. That dwarfed the €337,000 which would have bought better fireproof cladding at Grenfell – rejected on cost grounds.
Mr Feilding-mellen resigned as deputy council leader on Friday amid criticism over Grenfell.
An official code of conduct complaint was submitted a year ago when he attended a meeting which discussed the library deal but did not declare his children were on the list for the €6,700-aterm school. He was cleared as he had mentioned it before but the council’s chief solicitor agreed he could have done more “in the interest of transparency”.
An earlier complaint raised questions over Mr Feildingmellen’s career as a property developer and his access to privileged information.
No conflict of interest was found.