18/06/2017 BBC Weekend News

The Government says it is drafting in a team of civil servants to help

improve the official response to the Grenfell Tower fire,

amid mounting anger over the lack of help being provided to victims.

Many residents have said they've received little or no

assistance from Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council,

although the authority has insisted it's committed

Church services are being held today to remember

the victims of the blaze, as Simon Jones reports.

After the shock and the grief, today, a moment of reflection,

church services to mark the lives lost and the many missing, presumed

dead. That anger remains palpable. The difficulty is people are now

finding out who has died and that will be enormous grief as well as

enormous anger. I think you will see a whole different kind of atmosphere

because people... The deaths are now real. Many churches opened their

doors in the hours after the tragedy, offering shelter and

collecting donations, but people are asking, why did they need to step

in, where was the Government, the local council? Why didn't they do

more? One conservative councillor from Kensington and Chelsea admits

things have gone badly wrong. From what I can see, we have been caught

off-guard. Underground, people were quick to organise themselves. It has

been kind of a disgraceful slow, limp, if I can put it like that. The

Prime Minister accepts that in the hours after the disaster, the

support for families was not good enough. Now extra government staff

are being drafted in to work with the council. It follows a meeting

between the local people and the reason may in which they were keen

to have their voices heard. Things are finally moving forward and the

Government and the council are being proactive. I think sadly it took a

long time to get them up and running and if it wasn't for other centres,

none of this would have been done. We are lucky we have so many bright,

important, smart people in the area. The Home Office is making

arrangements for the family of one of those who died to travel from

Syria to the UK for the funeral. He was killed when he was separated

from his brother. His life, one of many remembered today. I think there

will be a special sense of grieving, sadness, in the churches today, as

people remember what has happened and people are still homeless as

well, but I think also there will be a note of hope. The painstaking

investigation is continuing but the warning from police is there will be

no quick answers. We can join Simon in West London now. How is the

increased government support showing itself to people on the ground? The

church service here has just finished and people have been taking

a moment to look at the flowers, bring more, look at the posters of

the faces of people missing who are sadly now presumed dead. The

Government says extra staff are coming in and some will be wearing

high visibility clothing to be easily identified by people who need

them. A lot of residents say they have seen no sign of them at all so

far today. We have asked the Government where they are but they

have not given us an answer. This is a community that needs trust

rebuilding with the Government. The tributes are here, but just over

there, you can see the police operation is continuing, along with

the Fire Service, and what remains of the tower block, still a shocking

sight. The warning is this investigation is not going to be

quick and it is likely going to be painful. Simon Jones there, thank

you. The Chancellor, Philip Hammond,

says Brexit negotiations that end with no deal would be an extremely

bad outcome for Britain. It comes as formal talks with the EU

are set to get under way Labour say the Government's approach

so far has left the UK in the worst Our political correspondent,

Susana Mendonca, is in Wesminster. Philip Hammond is taking a slightly

different position Yes, we have heard Theresa May say

so many times have no deal would be better than a bad deal. Here we have

Philip Hammond, the Chancellor saying no deal would be a very, very

bad outcome for Britain and he talks about how he wants a transitional

structure which means we have a slope rather than the cliff edge

people have spoken about. This is contrary to what other members of

the Cabinet think. Philip Hammond has been critical also of the

Government's approach and the Conservatives' campaign in the

general election and his role which he felt was not as it should have

been. It's true that my role

in the election campaign was not I did a lot of travelling

around the country... I met lots of very interesting

people and I heard lots Look, I would have liked

to have made much more of our economic record,

which I think is an excellent one, creating 2.9 million new jobs,

getting the deficit down There you have for it, the

Chancellor who was not have happy at being sidelines, talking about how

the Conservatives should have focused on the positive economic

message. We have got Brexit negotiations coming up, tomorrow,

and Labour have said Theresa May has effectively put the country into a

very difficult position, put the starting point back in terms of the

negotiations. All eyes will be on what happens between the EU and

Britain of course. Thank you. A murder investigation is under way

after an 18-year-old woman's body was found in a country

park in Wigan. She's been named by police

as Ellen Higginbottom. The discovery was made

in Orrell Water Park yesterday, after Ellen had been reported

missing by family members on Friday. Police say she had suffered a brutal

attack and are appealing for anyone with information

to come forward. France is voting in the second

and final round of the country's President Emmanuel Macron's party,

La Republique en Marche, which was formed just over a year

ago, is predicted to win up to three-quarters of the seats

in the national assembly. The bodies of a number of sailors

missing after a US naval destroyer collided with a container vessel

have been found. An investigation is under way to establish how the

collision occurred with the Philippine vessel in the middle of

the night. A forest fire in central

Portugal is believed The blaze is spreading though

the centre of the country Nearly 600 firefighters and 160

vehicles have been dispatched Many of those who died

were trapped in their cars. Our correspondent,

Alison Roberts, reports. People flee as the flames moving.

The fires that have swept across this mountainous part of Portugal

have devastated everything in their way. Dozens of fire started

yesterday amid hot, dry conditions, but it is this fire here that has

claimed so many lives. TRANSLATION: We were inside the

house, the fire was all around us. The firefighters came to get us

out because we could As for whether the house

burned or not, it must 700 firefighters battling this

blaze, hundreds more fighting elsewhere. At least 30 of the deaths

came as people tried to flee in their cars.

Other deaths and injuries occurred along or near the highway in this

Officials were visibly shaken by the deaths.

Portugal's Prime Minister said it was the worst ever such tragedy

The victim is all died in the same fire at the same place. The criminal

investigation department and the forensic teams are at work to try to

identify the victims. Several firefighters are among those

seriously injured or missing. France and Spain sent aircraft

to back up Portugal's own efforts, but with temperatures expected

to remain high, firefighters face You can see more on all of today's

stories on the BBC News Channel. The next news on BBC

One is at 6.30pm. Good afternoon. The hot weather that

has developed across many areas this weekend is going to be pretty tricky

to budge through the week ahead.