A tower block caught fire and was totally destroyed near where we are staying, killing an unknown (17 so far). number of poor people in the middle of the night.
Residents of the building, which was constructed in 1974, had long warned of potential fire hazards even though it was renovated just last year. “It is our conviction that a serious fire in a tower block or similar high density residential property is the most likely reason that those who wield power at the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organization will be found out and brought to justice!” a residents organization, the Grenfell Action Group, wrote in a blog post last year. The KCTMO runs public housing on behalf of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the west London area where the fire broke out.
On Wednesday morning, the Grenfell Action Group’s website was updated, with a post on the fire. “All our warnings fell on deaf ears, and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time,” the post read. Residents said they had been instructed by management before the blaze to stay in their apartments (!) in the event of a fire and to wait for emergency services to arrive. They said they had been told that their units were fireproof for at least an hour. Nick Paget-Brown, leader of the borough council, promised “a thorough investigation into “why the fire started and why it spread so quickly.” He acknowledged that residents had expressed concerns before the fire. “There are always concerns about fire safety in high-rise buildings,” he said. (Washington Post)
The story of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is a good example of what happens when you have a self- selecting elite with safe seats who are voted in without having to lift a finger . From personal experience they ignore residents, sit on their hands, refusing to answer letters or emails , and are indifferent to ordinary constituents. Their only concern seems to be to keep the local taxes , modest by most standards, down for the rich. James Wood, a graphic designer is quoted by the Washington Post as saying, “Anyone who earns below 10 million pounds a year is not human in this borough,” he said. “They don’t care about fire safety.”
The Establishment has not had a good time in this part of the world in the last few days. A hopeless MP voted out, now this. Birds are coming home to roost?
It’s absolutely disgraceful that people even had to live in that tower in the first place. It should’ve been knocked down years ago and its residents rehoused. Instead of housing people in high-dense and often cramped conditions, they could be housed in more spacious living conditions for less money, by moving them out of central London where property prices are very high. The disadvantage of this is that many people would miss living in central London, because of the convenience of living in an area where many amenities are nearby.
But personally I don’t think its good for poor people to live in inner-city areas. There is often a lot of crime, schools are poor and far from being healthy, high-dense living often leads to a proliferation of fast food restaurants; in London’s case the problem is cheap fried chicken outlets. I would build them nice houses in rural areas, where child obesity is lower and they are less likely to die from air pollution. London is increasingly overcrowded and unliveable. In order to give people the quality of life they deserve, we have to stop pretending that everyone can live in the same area.
It’s disgraceful people had to live in the tower in the first place. The government should’ve demolished it years ago, and rehoused the residents in proper accommodation, not overcrowded high-rise tower blocks.
Having said that, the residents are demanding that they be rehoused entirely within the Kensington and Chelsea area. I don’t believe this is practical, as the area is already very built up. If they want to live in nice houses, many of them will have to accept that there isn’t enough room for them in what is already a very crowded borough.