29/06/2017 London News

and other observations on BBC Two. That is underway on BBC Two.

Now on BBC One, it's time for the news where you are.

The Grenfell fire disaster has led to much public fury vented

Tonight, it planned to hold a meeting in private

But things didn't go according to plan, for them

And they're using you guys as an excuse.

You should be allowed in there, so should everyone else,

The council had wanted it to be a private meeting,

because they were concerned about this order.

because they were concerned about disorder.

The public was banned, but the press were allowed in after a judge

Inside, things had descended into what one

The leader of the council had left the meeting

after reading a statement, and saying following legal advice

there could be no open discussion, because the press was present.

Once outside, there was more anger from opposition councillors,

who said residents had been let down once again.

I decided half an hour ago, before the meeting,

because I was in two minds whether to come here or not,

because my child is clinging on to me since this has happened,

he doesn't want to let go of me because he saw the fire

and his friends died and my friends have

So I decided half an hour before this started to leave my child

and come here to try and get some answers, and I've come

here and they've just cancelled the meeting without giving

The lives of the people of North Kensington have been

changed in a way that can never be put back the way it was,

and they should be allowed to look to the political leadership of this

council to lead them, to comfort them and to support them,

and this council is just not doing it.

I am looking to the Conservative group to sack the leader

of the council, to certainly sack the deputy leader of the council

who did have responsibility for housing, and who has not been

seen in public in the last ten days, and I would call on the government

But not everyone wants to see resignations.

One resident told me she wanted to see accountability.

When they're coming out calling for his resignation,

So if he resigns, Paget-Brown, Robert Black will resign,

the rest of them will resign, they will no longer be accountable

and can't be brought into the case in an inquiry,

where they are held possibly for criminal charges.

We haven't been able to speak to any Conservative councillors,

but the anger from Labour councillors and local

There will be a council meeting in July, which will be open

to the public and people will expect answers.

So, the Grenfell fire has led to much public fury vented

And tonight its leader told this programme that

their response was as good as it could have been,

although he recognises more could have been done.

Nicholas Paget-Brown also insists he still has

He spoke to our Political Editor, Tim Donovan.

A fortnight on, a leader under pressure wants to remind

people of the sheer scale of what faced him.

The events of Grenfell Tower two weeks ago, I think is probably

the biggest tragedy to have hit in London since the end

The fact that it's in our borough and that it's in part

of the community that we know well means that this is one

of the most difficult periods in the council's history.

The key thing has been to try to ensure that everybody gets

some form of accommodation immediately and some financial

He has met traumatised survivors, he says,

Have you apologised to any of these survivors personally?

I need to apologise if the response on the ground to the tragedy has not

been quick enough or appropriate enough or on the scale

Not in person, but I do apologise here to you if anybody feels that

Kensington and Chelsea Council should have been doing more.

Where was that council help visible on the ground

The Prime Minister acknowledges that right across, both

at national and local level, the response was not good enough

and we acknowledge that and we need to see what could have been done

quicker and better, and we will learn from this.

The public inquiry will throw up issues about communication and how

quickly other boroughs can come to our aid and whether we should

Early on, it was hard to contain the anger.

The demonstrator community had long felt neglected.

We will need to look at this over the longer term.

There are many people in the community in north Kensington

who do recognise that the council has played an important

part in community life, supporting the voluntary sector.

So you don't accept that this has shown you to have

I am trying to avoid getting into a political dogfight.

Is it political, though, or is it just about a community

says, we have wanted more attention from you.

We haven't got that and this is what happens.

I understand and hear that allegation.

It is not one I am going to respond to at the moment.

I think we have a good story to tell about our record

in north Kensington, but clearly, some relationships

There are concerns about what happened

with the refurbishment of this tower.

We were trying to refurbish and improve the quality of housing in

Grenfell Tower. The most senior paid

official at the Council, Should it have been the unelected

head of this council rather That is something we will

look at in due course. My job at the moment is to make sure

the council has a head I am the public face of the council

and I need to be seen to be making sure that the proper response

to people's lives that have been so devastated by this

tragedy is in place. Would you expect to be the leader

in six months' time? That is not a matter I am

able to discuss now. I am asking whether you have lost

the right to be heard. Whether or not that is fair,

to restore confidence... No, I don't think I have lost

the right to be heard. But there is a time and a place

and at the moment, people don't They want to feel that

as leader of the council, I am putting in place a range

of services that will support them and their vulnerable

neighbours as best we can. BBC London has seen emails

showing how residents in Camden flagged up serious concerns over

fire safety in their tower They were assured by the council

and contractors that the work would be put right,

but ten years on, the Fire Brigade has declared

the building "unsafe". Homeless, desperate,

still they come, but could, In 2007, the Chalcots Estate

underwent a massive ?153 million

refurbishment. Rydon, which also worked

on Grenfell Tower, was the main As well as adding cladding,

windows were upgraded, The gas and electrics

were overhauled. These pictures, residents say,

were sent around of a show flat, But this is what they say

they were faced with. These pictures were taken

by various residents after work was carried out,

showing a raft of problems, the worst of which -

exposed gas pipes not boxed in or properly sealed

through firewalls. I mean, that's how they

were doing the work. This wasn't temporary work,

this was literally proper pipes for water and gas,

but we're more concerned with the gas pipes

literally just being bashed We've seen emails to Camden

and Rydon, in which tenants In September 2007, they got a reply

from a Camden official. A month later, a senior

manager at Rydon added... Work was then carried

out to fix things and, as far as residents knew,

it was all signed off After Grenfell, the fire brigade

was called in and declared these buildings were unsafe to live in -

ten years after the refurbishment It's no surprise to me

that the residents identified these problems years ago,

and the disgusting part about that is that nothing was done,

which I'm also not surprised about. We don't know what would have

happened, if there had been a big fire, I think we were living

probably on borrowed time. Rydon said they were not responsible

for gas rises or wiring in Chalcots, so complaints would have been passed

onto those responsible. They maintain all their works met

required building regulations. Camden told us the UK needs

a whole new safety regime. Years of cutting so-called red tape

and discrediting of health and safety have taken their toll,

change is needed. Scotland has been topping up on the

rental today. It has been a wet month here. For us, it has been dull

and cloudy for much of the day. We are beginning to see a few breaks in

the cloud moving across from Kent. Overnight, those breaks will

continue to migrate across south-east England. There will still

be a lot of cloud around. Looking at the forecast tomorrow, early on

there will be bright sunny spells getting through this area of cloud.

And although for the majority of us, it is a dry day, it might be worth

taking the umbrella because there is a chance of showers. Looking ahead

to the weekend, we are looking at a dry prospect weather-wise, with some

sunshine and it should turn a bit warmer.

June has been a crazy month, with quite literally extremes. Last week

was about the heat, the hottest days since 79. This week