The thoughts of all Medway Council Members will be with the families and friends of the 79 people died or are missing and feared dead following the blaze at the Grenfell Tower.
Members’ thoughts will also be with any injured people and their families and all emergency services and firefighters who help in very dangerous response situations.
Having regard to ongoing London investigations and limited time for answering Council questions, would the Leader of the Council be prepared to write and update all Members on the fire risk assessments and other actions being carried out in Medway following any advice from the Department of Communities and Local Government. Can the correspondence please include advice to Members on:
a) actions being taken by Medway Council to reassure all residents living both in public sector and private sector housing.
b) confirmation the Council is maintaining a central record of all panels and other samples sent or being sent for testing to BS or another standard from Medway Council buildings, other government buildings including hospitals, social housing providers and private landlords.
c) confirmation that Medway Council emergency and fire contingency plans are being urgently updated and robust procedures will now be put in place to provide emergency housing and have procedures to address the long-term housing needs of residents made homeless because of any catastrophe.
Minutes:
“The thoughts of all Medway Council Members will be with the families and friends of the 79 people died or are missing and feared dead following the blaze at the Grenfell Tower.
Members’ thoughts will also be with any injured people and their families and all emergency services and firefighters who help in very dangerous response situations.
Having regard to ongoing London investigations and limited time for answering Council questions, would the Leader of the Council be prepared to write and update all Members on the fire risk assessments and other actions being carried out in Medway following any advice from the Department of Communities and Local Government. Can the correspondence please include advice to Members on:
a) actions being taken by Medway Council to reassure all residents living both in public sector and private sector housing.
b) confirmation the Council is maintaining a central record of all panels and other samples sent or being sent for testing to BS or another standard from Medway Council buildings, other government buildings including hospitals, social housing providers and private landlords.
c) confirmation that Medway Council emergency and fire contingency plans are being urgently updated and robust procedures will now be put in place to provide emergency housing and have procedures to address the long-term housing needs of residents made homeless because of any catastrophe.”
Councillor Jarrett thanked Councillor Freshwater for his question. This was obviously a hugely important issue which had concerned everyone. He referred to the figures of 79 people dying and that it was widely thought that the figure would be significantly higher once proper analysis had been finished. This was tragic by any measure.
He stated that he would write to Councillor Freshwater in detail, however, he added that immediate action had already been taken by the Council. He also stated that there was ongoing action about how the Council would respond to emergencies through its emergency planning arrangements.
He stated that in terms of immediate steps, the Council had contacted and worked with partners such as mhs homes, who were the landlords of most of the high rise properties in Medway. The Council had also worked with health partners and significant work had been undertaken with other organisations which had a building that could present a problem in the future.
He also stated that he had been very clear with the Chief Executive that the Council needed to not only continue with the current emergency planning arrangements but the Council also needed to introduce, at various times, scenario planning, to combat different issues as they arose and to learn the lessons from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) in the way that the incident had been dealt with by both politicians and officials from RBKC to make sure that Medway would not fall into the some of the same traps.
He concluded by stating that Medway would not have the overbearing presence of the Mayor of London to contend with but it would be beholden on the Council to make sure it would deal with everything in a timely and appropriate manner.