Grenfell Tower fire: Fury as council halts meeting in ‘absolute fiasco’

A row has erupted over claims a council meeting to discuss the Grenfell fire had to be halted because it prejudices the inquiry into what happened.

The leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) said the cabinet could not sit publicly as it would put the public investigation at risk.

But an expert on the proceedings of councils has told Sky News that he has never before seen a local authority try to halt proceedings for that reason.

It came as the council’s attempts to get to grips with the aftermath of the fire were branded a fiasco and there were calls for the leader of the council to resign.

Media law consultant David Banks told Sky: "I think it’s extraordinary this idea that the authority is now going to have no substantive discussions in public about the fire between now and the end of the inquiry for fear of prejudicing the inquiry.

"I’ve been reporting on local authorities for over 30 years and I’ve never seen an authority behave in this way in these sorts of circumstances.

"I think there’s a real need by the authority and other agencies in dealing with this to be as open as possible.

"Clearly there are feelings and rumours and stuff going on social media saying there is a cover up.

"If they want to counter those rumours… the last thing they should be doing is holding the meetings in private and then cancelling them so they aren’t open to public scrutiny."

RBKC council initially attempted to keep the press and public out of its first Cabinet meeting since the fire two weeks ago, citing safety concerns.

But when journalists prevented from entering got an injunction requiring RBKC to let them in, Cabinet members relented, but soon brought the meeting to an end.

Earlier, council leader Nicholas Paget-Brown said: "I’m told the press are here as a result of legal intervention, that therefore means we cannot have a discussion as we were intending to have as that would prejudice the public inquiry."

In a furious exchange as the meeting was abandoned, Labour councillor Robert Atkinson berated Mr Paget-Brown.

He said: "An absolute fiasco, this is why I am calling for your resignation."

London mayor Sadiq Khan said the council’s decision to scrap the meeting was "madness".

He said: "You have a situation where that community have a deep level of mistrust of the local council, of national government, and if I’m being frank, people in positions of power and influence.

"For the council, at the first opportunity they had to provide some answers and to be transparent, to ban local residents and to ban journalists beggars belief."

Sky reporter Laura Bundock, who was in the meeting, said: "What I witnessed tonight was a council in complete chaos. A council that was unable to manage its own meeting – the very meeting that was set up to discuss the enormous tragedy that is this fire.

"It’s unsurprising that… by this complete lack of transparency, people are now asking ‘is this some kind of cover up? We need to ask what’s going on. Why are we not being told?’"

On Thursday, the retired judge leading the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire warned it may not be widespread enough to satisfy all survivors.

Sir Martin Moore-Bick suggested the focus of his investigation would likely be limited to what caused the blaze, why it spread and how it could be prevented in future.

At least 80 people were killed in the devastating blaze at the west London tower block earlier this month.

RBKC’s chief executive Nicholas Holgate has already resigned over the Grenfell Tower disaster, amid suggestions he was forced out by Communities and Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid.

Prime Minister Theresa May previously branded the response to the tragedy "not good enough", with Whitehall civil servants drafted in as part of a beefed-up operation in the local area.

(c) Sky News 2017: Grenfell Tower fire: Fury as council halts meeting in ‘absolute fiasco’