Time to ‘sack’ inferno council

Insult to democracy and victims

EVEN THOUGH Kensington and Chelsea Council’s chief executive Nicholas Holgate had already confirmed his intention to resign before council leader Nicholas Paget-Brown quit over the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the Government should now go even further.

There is a strong case to be made for the whole council being placed in ‘special measures’, with new executives drafted in, after a Cabinet meeting to discuss the inferno descended into chaos – ruling Tory councillors walked out when the High Court stated that the media had a legal right to attend.

Not only did this heavyhandedness shame some ‘tinpot’ dictatorships, but such arrogance also besmirched the reputation of democracy per se and gave cause for victims of injustice to be even more suspicious of the wider political establishment.

For Coun Paget-Brown to claim media reports could be prejudicial to the forthcoming public inquiry would not have been further from the truth – inquiries can’t be prejudiced because they’re presided over by a senior judge and any competent council official should have been more than capable of making this clear.

Given Rotherham Council’s leadership was rightly replaced in the light of the borough’s child abuse scandal, why has the same not happened at Kensington? At least 80 people were killed when flames spread with devastating speed throughout a tower block where newly-installed cladding on the building’s exterior appears to have been fitted on the cheap with the council’s knowledge. To compound matters, the council’s response to the disaster has been both cavalier and complacent.

These are matters that must be discussed in public. If Theresa May wishes to show she’s in charge, she should act now before this ignominious council has a chance to cause even more heartache, offence and embarrassment.