25/06/2017 London News

That's it, I'll be back with the late News At Ten.

So the focus on cladding on high-rise buildings

continues across London, but so do questions about the way

was initially handled by Kensington and Chelsea Council.

With plans already in place to deal with a major emergency,

our political editor, Tim Donovan,

Why didn't help kick in immediately for those who survived,

It took 48 hours for the council, Kensington and Chelsea,

The former civil servant who helped set up London's emergency response

procedures says they are exemplary on paper - it was the system

of triggering them which was the problem.

I think there will have to be a better system in place,

one where central government might have to intervene early on,

and other boroughs are allowed to intervene early on,

to ask very serious questions, say, "Do you want our help?"

you should throw the resources at it early and get ahead of it.

By the time you have failed to do that, it is too late.

But financial help and re-housing plans are now moving forward.

Quite rightly, one of the things we'll have to look at is maybe

it should be the Government triggers this in future, but the Government

has now, later in the day, but absolutely now on top of this,

and absolutely funding the help to the people that need it,

and one of the things I think will also come out of this inquiry

is to make sure we look at fire regulations in the future.

As tenants in four Camden blocks spent a second night

away from their homes, at least half a dozen of London's

councils are known to have some cladding problems.

And the inspections of the last week have raised other risks too.

The cladding issue is being inspected systematically,

but we had a fire in my constituency yesterday, in a lower rise

building without cladding, and I'm really concerned

that the Government needs to step up the inspections

and support across blocks that could have wider issues.

No-one's quite clear yet what Grenfell Tower

is going to lead councils to find across the capital.

And as investigations continue across London

into cladding around buildings, Tara Welsh has been to Wandsworth,

where a high-rise there has failed a test by government inspectors.

You can see the Wembley arch, and slightly to the right

you can see the building where the fire took place...

cladding was put on Jose's building when it was refurbished.

It's now been tested and doesn't meet current fire-safety standards.

To me, at the moment, I don't feel that worried,

because obviously if the fire did come in, the building

does meet requirements except the outside, then we just

What I'm hoping for is that, by Monday, I will see

scaffolding going up, and the council say,

The council have told us that in response to the findings,

a specialist team from the Fire Brigade have checked

things like fire doors, electrical cupboards and dry risers,

and they say they found there is no reason for people to move out.

Wandsworth Council said this is different to Camden -

tower blocks were evacuated there when officers found

problems with insulation, gas pipes and fire doors,

Here, the council says it's been confirmed there

is no undue risk to residents, but the cladding will be removed

as soon as possible, and fire marshals will be stationed here.

I find it quite awful, actually, because there's a lot of old people

that live in the block, single mums with children, you know,

and despite devastating, actually, to think all this time we've been

I think that the concern for vulnerable people,

those trying to get down a single staircase in a panic situation,

is going to be something quite unnerrving to a lot of people here.

But I think there's also a certain calmness the council put in place,

elements of due diligence, fire watch et cetera

Cladding on blocks from seven London boroughs have now failed

government tests as consequences of the Grenfell Tower

Hundreds of thousands of Londoners have been celebrating the Muslim

festival of Eid al-Fitr, with the Ministry of Defence

allowing Muslims in southeast London to gather at the army barracks

in Woolwich for a day of celebration and prayers.

Thousands of people turned up, and a sermon was delivered

about the importance of peace, love and charity to all.

Prayers were also said for the victims of the Grenfell Tower

fire and the terrorist attacks on London Bridge and Finsbury Park.

And I'll be discussing some aspects of Eid with Sonny and Shay

on BBC Radio London in around ten minutes' time.

But now, let's get the weather forecast from Elizabeth.

Following the intense weather earlier on in the week,

we're now back to bog-standard British summertime.

A cooler night tonight, this is how we'll start

off the day tomorrow, with plenty of sunshine,

a lovely day, and it'll feel pleasantly warm in the sun

A bit of fair-weather cloud here and there

through the afternoon, very light wind, top temperatures

But it's all change on Tuesday, we'll see some wet weather

in the form of heavy, thundery downpours, more prolonged

spells of rain as we head through an unsettled week.

That's it. I'll be back later with a news update at 10:20.

Hope you can join me then. Bye for now.

Good evening. We will start with a look at the big picture, which sees

one area of low pressure jetting away towards Scandinavia, winds

falling