AS most of you know I tend towards right leaning when it comes to politics HOWEVER...

Reading this has really made me unbelievably angry....

"On 17 June 2017, MPs asked the council to explain why it had amassed £274 million of reserves, after years of underspending, and had not used any of its budget surplus to increase fire safety, given that residents had issued repeated warnings about the Grenfell Tower fire risk. The council also gave top rate council taxpayers a £100 refund rather than reinvesting the funds.

The council received further criticism for their lack of on-the-ground support on 18 June 2017.Some families were reportedly still sleeping on the floor in local centres four days after the event.[A leading volunteer in the relief effort said: "Kensington and Chelsea are giving ten pounds to the survivors when they go to the hotels – a tenner – there is money pouring in from all these amazing volunteers. We can't get access to this money"

The first paragraph has led to calls for the councli leader and some others to resign. Fu*k that! If it turns out that the cladding as has been recently reported is illegal in the UK for buiilding over a certain height, then criminal proceedings should not start and end with the contractors. The leader of Wand C council will be on a six figure salary and must take responsibility for what has occurred and the ongoing unacceptable situation.
I was pretty angry when I saw the reports from the weekend at the basement of the council offices where all the doanations were being held -locked up and deserted.
Whilst ever central goovernment is being targeted by protesters , whipped up by the media, the main culprits in this are increasingly the locally elected leaders of Westminster and Chelsea Council and the focus should be on them and the reckless disregard for the poorer parts of the community. Jonathon Pye's rants are entertaining, often hit the mark and on viewing his latest I thought it might be a little over the top.. I am now beginning to realise his rant at the W&C council was absolutely spot on.
If the above facts are true (and it is clear for all to see that many are) then I have nothing but contempt for their incompetence, apathy and eliists approach to running the budget. Words simply fail me. If May wishes to rebuild any credibility and prove that she really does want a more equal society she should follow this up and hold Westmisnter council to account up to and including using the full force of the law. If the buck stops with the contractors it will be the final nail in the coffin of MAy and the Conservative Govt.

 

PS How can you blame central govt for this specific disaster on the grounds of cutbacks and austerity when the the council is sitting on £274m unspent surplus!

 

What's your assessment of the current squad and where do you see the key areas we need to strengthen?

 

Capitalists horde money shock

 

The only thing that I would take issue with in this post is the belief that May wishes to build a more equal society. I find little evidence in history of Tories wanting a more equal society. The whole concept of conservatism seems to be that rich people should have control of poor people's lives and decide how much they themselves pay towards alleviating the suffering of the poor. Nowhere is that more in evidence than in Kensington and Chelsea.

 

There's a politics forum somewhere that he's lengthily posting the ins and outs of our recent contract policy and lack of attacking threats

 

That's what I said the other day. I know this is an open forum but the primary function is to discuss Barnsley Football Club. The last time the OP posted anything even slightly BFC related was 19th May.

 

The Tories do want an equal society. It's not their fault if the poor are too thick or lazy to go out there and achieve equality for themselves. The Tories selflessly oppose taxing the rich to try and incentivise the poor to get off their arses and make something out of themselves but they still don't bother. You just can't help some people.

 

Go on then - tell us what financial shock a large group of capitalists have suffered.

No more suspense please.

 

Calm the fck darn, they'll end up blaming Labour anyway.

 

How can you be right wing and annoyed that the council was sat on that amount of money and not doing anything with it? It's the raison d'etre of right wing policy. Profit over people. Maybe you're just not as right wing as you think you are?

 

I worked in Local Government for forty three years. The remit of any Local Authority is to care for its citizens from
"Cradle to grave". To do that it has relied mainly on monies given to it by Central Government.
Some of the bigger Authorities employ Financial experts who enhance the LA's income by speculating in open markets and
selling land and buildings for public development. A lot of Councils have large sums "invested" as contingency funds although
some took a massive hit when the Icelandic banking crisis affected them. A colleague in a Kent confided at the time that they lost millions.

When the present Government came in they introduced a policy of austerity by imposing year on year cuts to Council
budgets. This led to some selling off or cutting back on front line services. Some have also chosen to supplement the shortfall by dipping into their reserves created by their Finance teams.

The aim of the cuts was to encourage dissent amongst the public to the point that pressure would be brought upon politicians and Senior officers within Councils to offer the more " lucrative money making services" out to public tender in the hope they would be operated more efficiently at cheaper cost. Legal pressure was also brought to bear ( e.g LG Land Planning Act).
We've seen this happen over the years re- Architecture (NPS), Housing ( Berneslai Homes), Education ( Academies), Refuse Collection , Street Lighting, School Meals etc etc.

You will find that when this happens all existing LA staff are transferred to the new employer ( TUPE). Experience has told us that that process usually involves re-negotiation of rates of pay and in a lot of cases gradual phased redundancies.

Also as unfair as it seems Private Sector firms can bid to do work in the Public Sector but the Local Government Goods and Services Act 1972 prevents Local Authorities from bidding for work or trading with the Private Sector.!
Something slightly unfair there methinks.!!

Usually around Local election time a lot of cash is suddenly made available for things like Council house repairs, facelifts in the Town etc. This is to create a feel good factor so that the electorate put their cross in the right box on polling day.
I would guess that the £100 rebate by K&C Council to its wealthiest charge payers occurred around that time.!

With regards to the fire in the Grenfell Tower, we know now it was caused by an exploding refrigerator. We have to reserve
judgement until the Public enquiry reveals everything that happened before any blame can be apportioned.

Looking at what we've been told so far " somebody" could have countermanded the Architects specification to fit fully fire resistant panels in deference to flammable PE, the instruction to stay put until rescued now seems to have been the wrong one given what happened with the panels, the fact that there was no sprinkler systems, inadequate fire door protection and it would now appear no fire extinguishers to help residents fight the fire when it first took hold.

The certainties to emerge from this tragedy will be a total overhaul of public building fire safety and even though tax rises may ensue will bring about the end of seven years of austerity that to my mind having seen it first hand has contributed to quite an amount of hardship amongst the less fortunate in our society in that short cuts and cost saving measure have done nothing to enhance the average citizens life.

When Private Companies take over they make profit their "God" and costs and quality are usually pared to the bone re-
they use British Standard or Equal ( which covers a multitude of sins.) which means they gravitate to the lowest price.

We need to pray and pray hard that if the proposed privatisation of Water goes ahead that the safeguards to protect all of us are in place with respect to storage, treatment, effluence, pipework systems etc otherwise I shudder to think what might happen to all of us in the pursuit of profit.!!

 

A report in 2013 found that Councils had amassed £19 billion in reserves.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...axpayer-money-says-local-government-secretary

 

Thanks for your knowledge in this. Gives an authentic insight. Since the late seventies we have worshipped money and profitability over care and compassion. We have paid the price at Grenfell and I can only imagine that there will be more tragedies to come, whether in buildings, transport, health service etc. This tide must turn. Some service should be ruled by safety needs and not by profitability. What will be the next tragedy?

 

He tried a football post earlier in the week. Was still rambling nonsense.

 

Westminster council have been promoting a hard line austerity stance since Porter's time. Thats the reason for tbe extent of their reserves.

 

Correct they were held up as the " beacon" as to how others should be able to perform.
Pure and simple the Tory party is now stood in the biggest pile of " cack"
that's ever been seen in the history of man. The chinless wonder who lost his seat at the election but May has now
co-opted as an adviser to co-ordinate the Cross party Committee on Fire Safety's recommendations has been
sat on a damning report from 2013 spelling out that a disaster similar to Grenfell could happen at any time, is still
gathering dust in his pending tray in his newly vacated Westminster office.

The true / pseudo leaders of the Government Johnson and Fallon met up for a pint at the weekend. They strolled to a bench
out of earshot of the public no doubt formulating what the parties next move should be.

With the questions now being asked, that would appear to be "bend down pick up large handfuls of " cack" in the hope
that none of it sticks on us and throw it as far and wide as you can, because as you know " it warn't me Gov."!

Let's hope that whichever Lord or Sir that leads the Public enquiry has the balls to put the blame fairly and squarely where it really lies. To my mind there is no way that the Government and Council can be exonerated for their part in this tragic sequence of events.

 

and what a bent bitch she was.

 

Have you seen the price of fois gras

 

Its an absolute travesty that the government has ordered a Public Enquiry.

This makes it easier for them to cover up any wrong doing on their part..
What's needed is a Public Inquest .
In that way the survivors and families woud be able to voice their concerns. have their say, much more difficult to cover up anything that the government doesnt want to be in the public domain.

The families have suffered enough.

They need to have their say.

Theresa May came out immediately and said there must be a Public Enquiry, she was very quick off the mark there wasn't she?
A lot quicker than meeting the survivrs and their families.
What is she trying to hide ? and, has that horrible ex housing Minister Gavin Barwell come out from his cupboard under the stairs yet?
No wonder hes hiding, having sat on the damning report that if the recommendations within the report had been carried out would have saved endless lives.
He loses his seat and immediately gets catapulted to Chief Advisor to the PM!
It stinks.

Lets have a full Public Inquest please.
Theresa May also wants those in charge to report directly to her, the strong and stable one !
She who very conveniently lost a multitude of files connected to the Westminster paedophile enquiry when she was Home Secretary.

This so called Public Enquiry has whitewash written all over it.!

Never trust a Tory.