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KCTMO chief executive ‘bullied’ Grenfell councillor out of meeting, inquiry hears
The chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea Council’s ALMO “bullied” a councillor out of a meeting in which a report on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment was discussed, the public inquiry into the fire heard today.
Judith Blakeman, an opposition councillor whose Notting Dale ward covers Grenfell Tower, described how she was thrown out of the meeting of the council’s Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee (HSPC), of which she was a member.
Held on 11 May 2016 – just over a year before the deadly fire – the behind-closed-doors meeting was due to consider an internal review of the Grenfell Tower project produced by Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO).
Two months earlier, the inquiry heard, the KCTMO board – of which Ms Blakeman was also a member – had at a meeting approved the report, which she said today “commended” the TMO and main refurbishment contractor Rydon for their work.
But Ms Blakeman said she had refused to back the report, which she had previously argued should have been independent and which failed to consider a petition signed by 40% of Grenfell residents heavily criticising the KCTMO.
After that KCTMO meeting, Ms Blakeman emailed fellow members of the HSPC outlining her concerns about the review, including questions over the small number of resident complaints it reported.
Having been made aware of her email, KCTMO chief executive Robert Black emailed the committee’s chair Quentin Marshall and the council’s cabinet member for housing Rock Feilding-Mellen shortly before the 11 May meeting began, pointing to alleged conflicts of interest on Ms Blakeman’s part.
“The committee should be deciding whether her interest is significant to preclude her from participating in the discussions (in this case, her interest is conflicted two-fold, she is the elected member for the area under consideration and she is a board member of the company being scrutinised, she cannot be using her powers on the committee to force her own needs),” he wrote.
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Ms Blakeman insisted today that she always declared her role as a KCTMO board member at HSPC meetings, having held the two positions simultaneously for around two years by this time.
This was the first time she had heard that a KCTMO board member was expected not to sit in HSPC meetings discussing TMO matters, she claimed.
Mr Black’s email also claimed that Ms Blakeman was “in breach of her duties as a director of KCTMO” by sending her email and added that “the council should prevent her from openly breaching her duties by allowing her make detrimental comments against the TMO board and its report”.
Minutes from the subsequent HSPC meeting state: “It was noted that Cllr Blakeman sat in the public gallery for this item and did not participate in the discussions.”
Asked today why that was the case, Ms Blakeman said it was because she was “bullied by the chairman and by Robert Black”.
She sat in the public gallery “fuming”, having been told by Mr Black and Mr Marshall that she could not participate in the meeting, she told the inquiry.
One committee member tried to raise Ms Blakeman’s concerns during the discussion but was “shut down”, she added.
Earlier in the session, Ms Blakeman claimed that she had tried to orchestrate a “learning process” for the council following the Grenfell Tower refurbishment but got “nowhere”.
Asked why, she replied: “Well, there comes a point where banging your head against a brick wall ceases to be attractive and one stops.”
In the morning, the inquiry saw board meeting minutes showing that by 23 March 2017 – just three months before the Grenfell Tower fire – the London Fire Brigade believed there was enough evidence to prosecute KCTMO in relation to a previous fire.
This was a blaze at Adair Tower, around a mile from Grenfell, in October 2015. This fire had necessitated a full evacuation of the building when fire door self-closers failed.
“There’s enough evidence to prove offences, but also a lot of mitigating circumstances,” the minutes said. “The question of whether a prosecution would be in the public interest is apparently still to be addressed.”
Asked for her reaction, Ms Blakeman said she did not recall the meeting. The same meeting also listed nine deficiency notices issued by the fire brigade for buildings across the borough, including Grenfell Tower.
“Surely that was to the board a red flag for the TMO that something wasn’t quite right with how the TMO were going about managing fire safety in their stock. Do you accept that?” Richard Millett, counsel to the inquiry, asked.
“Yes,” replied Ms Blakeman.
Asked why there was no record of concerns she raised at certain meetings, Ms Blakeman said: “Most of the things that I said were not accepted at board meetings, that’s when they weren’t minuted.”
“Is your recollection that you were something of a lone voice on the board?” Mr Millett asked.
“Yes. That is in one of my statements,” she replied.
Ms Blakeman also described how the board tended to side with the executive of KCTMO, including chief executive Mr Black, and “closed ranks” against her when she attempted to raise complaints about matters including the quality of Grenfell Tower’s refurbishment.
“Was it your impression from time to time that members of the board would, as it were, close ranks with the TMO executive?” Mr Millett asked.
“Oh, absolutely,” Ms Blakeman replied.
“And what gave you that impression?” added Mr Millett.
“The way I was treated,” she replied.
She said that this applied even to resident board members at the organisation – who formed a majority on the board.
At the end of her evidence, Ms Blakeman claimed that “one reason” the Grenfell fire happened “was because the council, first of all, did not take [resident] Mr Daffarn seriously and secondly they then decided to vilify me as well; they didn’t listen to the residents”.
The inquiry continues.
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