In the days and weeks after the Grenfell Tower fire, North Ken was flooded with volunteers. Some came to join existing local groups working on the ground, ensuring people were safe, had somewhere to sleep, something to eat, someone to care as they waited, traumatised, for the worst news of their lives. Some came with specific skills, organising the vast and staggeringly generous inflow of water, food, clothes, nappies, bedding – so much that we ran out of space to […]
Since resigning from the Labour Party in April 2023 I’ve been invited numerous times to join other parties. In the past year or so, the Green Party, Your Party, and the various associated groups and campaigns such as DemSoc, Rise, Transform etc. So far I’ve resisted. Then last month I was invited to join Reform. Here is an extract of the email I received: ‘While researching RBKC wards to decide where to stand, I found your profile, and it immediately […]
The Grenfell Half Anniversary is this Sunday 14 December 2025. The December commemoration isn’t as big as the well-known Silent Walk on 14 June every year, when 1,000s of us walk silently in solidarity, frustration and – yes – anger. But it’s an anniversary none the less, when local people and others who care, come together to remember our loved ones, and show our community that we still care. This December will be different. After a lot of debate and […]
It is a source of constant frustration for Kensington and Chelsea minority party Councillors – currently eight Labour, three Independent and one Green – that they are so often completely and utterly side-lined by the Tory-run Council. In a recent review of the ‘Charter for Public Participation’ the role, purpose and experience of N Ken Councillors has been barely mentioned. The relationship outlined is purely between the Council and the residents. Yet we are the ones, alongside our residents, who […]
As Kensington and Chelsea Council heads for the Grenfell Inquiry, Emma Dent Coad reports on the latest developments It is truly disheartening to watch Kensington and Chelsea Council position itself in advance of the Grenfell Inquiry in mid-May, for the questioning of former Leadership team members. We Councillors are sent daily news updates, carefully curated and framed to appear less damaging than they are in reality. We say the Grenfell Tower fire was an atrocity; the Council calls it a […]
It is beyond ironic that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council, facing possible criminal manslaughter charges in relation to the Grenfell Tower fire, is attempting to sue two manufacturers of products involved in the atrocity of the Council’s own making. One is Whirlpool, the manufacturer of the fridge that overheated and started the fatal fire. The other is Arconic, the manufacturer of the cheaper flammable cladding that RBKC first specified, and then turned a blind eye to, when […]