Grenfell Tower management boss steps aside to help inquiry

The chief executive of the group that manages Grenfell Tower has resigned, saying he would assist a public inquiry into the deadly fire.

Robert Black, chief executive of Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, agreed to step aside to "concentrate on assisting with the investigation and inquiry", said a statement by the group.

The move came as Downing Street rebuked Kensington and Chelsea council for its decision to halt a meeting on Thursday evening as soon as the press entered the room.

The council leader said an open-doors session could prejudice the public investigation, but the decision sparked fury among residents and survivors.

Many complained about what they said was a lack of transparency. Some said they feared a cover-up, while others said they had no trust in authorities handling the response to the disaster.

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"Access to democratic process should be always easy and that is vital to maintain confidence in the democratic system," a Number 10 spokesperson said.

"The High Court ruled it should have been open and they should have respected the High Court decision."

Cladding from 149 high-rise buildings in 45 local authority areas has now failed fire safety tests introduced in the wake of the blaze – a 100% failure rate.

Authorities are struggling to contain the fallout from the disaster, as tensions mount and pressure piles up on the council’s leader, Conservative Nicholas Paget-Brown, to step down.

The council’s chief executive, Nicholas Holgate, quit earlier this month.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said residents have "no confidence in the local council" and "feel let down" by central Government.

"The idea that the first discussion from the council, that the meeting should be behind closed doors and then is abandoned because of a court order, beggars belief," he said.

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Labour councillor Robert Atkinson, whose ward includes Grenfell Tower, accused the council of "hiding away" and called for the resignation of the leader and cabinet.

He said he and other Labour councillors are considering calling an emergency meeting of the council, and said the Government could be called upon to intervene.

"It was a complete shambles and a fiasco and it shows enormous disrespect," Mr Atkinson told Sky News.

At least 80 people are thought to have died in the west London blaze. The tower’s external cladding has been widely blamed for the rapid spreading of the fire.

The head of the Local Government Association, Lord Porter, expressed concern for other people in tower blocks around the country, saying the fire had exposed a "systemic failure".

Sue Caro, a campaigner with the group Justice for Grenfell, said the response of the council was "disgraceful", but not surprising.

"I think the community is not particularly surprised by the actions of the council because it’s more of the same," she told Sky News.

"The community has been disregarded and ignored by the council for years."

Mr Paget-Brown apologised for the authority’s response in the aftermath of the disaster.

The decision to scrap the meeting was based on legal advice, he said. However, some legal experts have said there was no risk of the inquiry being influenced.

Mark Stephens, a senior partner with law firm Howard Kennedy, said the notion was "nonsense".

"Judges understand how to weigh evidence, they understand how to exclude prejudicial facts and won’t allow them to be tendered as evidence," he said.

The Government has ordered a public inquiry led by Sir Martin Moore-Bick, a former Court of Appeal judge, but some residents are sceptical.

Joe Delaney, a 37-year-old resident, said Sir Martin "seems a genuine guy".

But he added: "He seems to want to keep the scope very narrow, to do with why the fire spread so quickly, while we are more looking at why was it started in the first place – why were residents ignored?"

(c) Sky News 2017: Grenfell Tower management boss steps aside to help inquiry