Grenfell Tower block disaster

What about the fire in Fife Scotland in 2000? That that Red Tory Johnny Prescott as Deputy PM had cabinet responsibility for?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...-high-rise-building-cladding-ignored-decades/

Politicians should stop trying to throw shit at each other and get on with sorting out the multitude of cock-ups over decades layered one on top of another that resulted in this disaster.

I have no confidence things will change.

The phrase ´´Lessons will be learnt´´ will make its umpteenth appearance.
Unfortunately its usually a case of ´´Lessons have been forgotten´´or as you say political blame allocation.

Surely accountability comes with responsibility or perhaps things are different in the civil service ?
 
I have no confidence things will change.

The phrase ´´Lessons will be learnt´´ will make its umpteenth appearance.
Unfortunately its usually a case of ´´Lessons have been forgotten´´or as you say political blame allocation.

Surely accountability comes with responsibility or perhaps things are different in the civil service ?
You'd like to think so wouldn't you.
 
Which council or construction firm would not use the cheapest legal material they could to complete any building, tunnel (etc, etc)? Expensive items are only used when demanded by the customer - e.g. a marble floor, seriously large windows, use of rare expensive hard woods (etc, etc).
The fact that the cladding material was deemed legal when it wasn't is the major issue here.
There are a stack of other issues, mind, including: "Are fire safety standards up to scratch?" This includes The number of stairwells in a building, fire door provision, fire curtains to stop the spread of smoke, whether we can we continue to rely on "passive fire" protection in multi-occupany housing developments or are sprinkler systems required, electrical system provision (lots of power surges in the weeks preceding the fire), failure to correctly protect recently installed gas pipes and the management of reported safety issues in high rise buildings.
If the first hadn't happened the fire would not have spread at the speed it did. The second lot may have started the fire or turned a rapidly spreading fire into a disaster.

Which council or construction firm thinks it's acceptable to clad high rise tower blocks in flammable materials just to save a few quid? There are lots of valid points being raised about tower block design, safety doors etc but seriously what is the rationale behind wrapping these blocks in combustible material other than 'its cheap'?
 
Which council or construction firm thinks it's acceptable to clad high rise tower blocks in flammable materials just to save a few quid? There are lots of valid points being raised about tower block design, safety doors etc but seriously what is the rationale behind wrapping these blocks in combustible material other than 'its cheap'?

Have they established that the Council knew, or should have known, that they were cladding the tower blocks in combustible materials?
 
Kensington and Chelsea Council leader Nick Paget-Brown has reportedly just quit.
 
Have they established that the Council knew, or should have known, that they were cladding the tower blocks in combustible materials?


now isnt that the big question?

If they did know, then they are culpable
If they didnt know buthadnt specified non flamabke material, they are culpable
If they didnt know because they specified an nonflamable material but the contractor used a flamable one then they are not culpable but the building inspector might be and the contractor is.
 
What about the fire in Fife Scotland in 2000? That that Red Tory Johnny Prescott as Deputy PM had cabinet responsibility for?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...-high-rise-building-cladding-ignored-decades/

Politicians should stop trying to throw shit at each other and get on with sorting out the multitude of cock-ups over decades layered one on top of another that resulted in this disaster.

Corbyn, rightly or wrongly, generalised that council cuts mean fewer inspections. May then specifically blames Blair for cladding - it's absolutely disgusting as successive governments have not heeded warnings. You've gone back to 2001. The Knowsley Heights fire in 1991 featured cladding. Complacency has been the consistent feature. Here's a quote from a BRE report for the government in 2002: “very few people are killed or injured from fire who are elsewhere than on the fire floor” and “most deaths or injuries on floors other than the fire floor are as a result of smoke”. “The evidence acquired for this project leads to the conclusion that the measures currently called upon through Approved Document B are still commensurate with the risk." May was not just politicising but personalising it in an utterly dishonest way.

And getting rid of flammable cladding will not be enough as simply it does not need cladding for fire to travel up the outside of buildings (or across or down).
 
The civil service is lazy and inefficient because the money doesn't belong to the person/people at the top. He/she/them ain't cracking the whip and threatening the sack if the people below don't make him/her enough money this year to buy another Ferrari/wife/whatever. They're all comfortable. It filters down. imo.
 
now isnt that the big question?

If they did know, then they are culpable
If they didnt know buthadnt specified non flamabke material, they are culpable
If they didnt know because they specified an nonflamable material but the contractor used a flamable one then they are not culpable but the building inspector might be and the contractor is.

Something like 45 councils plus a number of hospitals have failed the tests so far. I may be naive but I doubt that any of them knowingly turned their buildings into death traps. The question as to whether they should have known that they were doing that is obviously more complex.
 
Corbyn, rightly or wrongly, generalised that council cuts mean fewer inspections. May then specifically blames Blair for cladding - it's absolutely disgusting as successive governments have not heeded warnings. You've gone back to 2001. The Knowsley Heights fire in 1991 featured cladding. Complacency has been the consistent feature. Here's a quote from a BRE report for the government in 2002: “very few people are killed or injured from fire who are elsewhere than on the fire floor” and “most deaths or injuries on floors other than the fire floor are as a result of smoke”. “The evidence acquired for this project leads to the conclusion that the measures currently called upon through Approved Document B are still commensurate with the risk." May was not just politicising but personalising it in an utterly dishonest way.

And getting rid of flammable cladding will not be enough as simply it does not need cladding for fire to travel up the outside of buildings (or across or down).

Seems to me that successive Governments were prepared to take the risk associated with fire.

The Trade Organisations took their cue from this and simply inferred to their supporting members that the regulations were just guidelines and so cheaper less effective raw materials could be used and they became acceptable practice within the construction industry encouraged by Councils who always looked for cheaper options.

All supported this skewing of the vulnerable regulations so all must take their share of blame. Their risk may have continued if an explosion had not ignited the raw materials but tweaking a tigers tail does not always have pleasant results.
 
Which council or construction firm thinks it's acceptable to clad high rise tower blocks in flammable materials just to save a few quid? There are lots of valid points being raised about tower block design, safety doors etc but seriously what is the rationale behind wrapping these blocks in combustible material other than 'its cheap'?
That's the thing though, prior to 2006 you either used consituant materials that all passed the limited combustability tests or you built a section of wall and brunt it to prove the combined material construction also passed the tests. After 2006 a 'desk-top survey' was introduced that was supposed to provide a risk assesment from work done elsewhere but in reality it allowed real proof of limited combustability to be sidestepped.
 
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That's the thing though, prior to 2006 you either used consituant materials that all passed the limited combustability tests or you built a section of wall and brunt it to prove the combined material construction also passed the tests. After 2006 a 'desk-top survey' was introduced that was supposed to provide a risk assesment from work done elsewhere but in reality it allowed real proof of limited combustability to be sidestepped.

Interesting points. Is it a case of manufacturers of cladding etc 'paying' for 'independant testing' and these results being relied on to OK the use of materials that turned out not to be suitable after all. Bit like oil companies commissioning climate change studies from 'independant scientists' who miraculously find no link between climate change and the burning of fossil fuels.
 
That's the thing though, prior to 2006 you either used consituant materials that all passed the limited combustability tests or you built a section of wall and brunt it to prove the combined material construction also passed the tests. After 2006 a 'desk-top survey' was introduced that was supposed to provide a risk assesment from work done elsewhere but in reality it allowed real proof of limited combustability to be sidestepped.

Todays BBC webpage has a follow up to its Newsnight report detailing your points.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40465399

Peeling of the Kingspan manufactured aluminium foil outer laminate to expose the none FP insulation occurs under certain conditions it would seem.
 
That's the thing though, prior to 2006 you either used consituant materials that all passed the limited combustability tests or you built a section of wall and brunt it to prove the combined material construction also passed the tests. After 2006 a 'desk-top survey' was introduced that was supposed to provide a risk assesment from work done elsewhere but in reality it allowed real proof of limited combustability to be sidestepped.

Did any regulations change in 2006 to allow this? The desk top exercise is ok if you're wanting to use material which has already been tested and approved - but not if components have changed. That's where the investigation will no doubt concentrate. Unless there is deliberate deception (like a garage giving a MoT cert for a duff car) it will just be moral guilt but nothing criminal.

All this will be academic (in literal and figurative senses) for future approvals. Regs will change and insurers will anyway insist on non-combustible cladding. On existing buildings with similar cladding it may be cheaper to retrofit sprinklers than replace cladding (though even with non-combustible materials, to inspect every joint has been correctly fitted is unrealistic as you would to remove it to check). That vastly reduces the risk but there's always the possibility of an external source - I'd ban Chinese lanterns as by Murphy's law one will land in a high rise balcony and cause a fire - and you'd need to know how sprinklers would cope with a flashover into an apartment. There are other things - in high rise, windows opening with a top hinge would deflect burning debris that mIght get in with side opening.

I still say Pickles was horribly complacent in 2013 and May was well out of order at PMQ this week blaming Blair. But complaceny has served politicians and developers well for a long time and the mantra "lessons will be learned" has proved to be nonsense in this case.
 
Interesting points. Is it a case of manufacturers of cladding etc 'paying' for 'independant testing' and these results being relied on to OK the use of materials that turned out not to be suitable after all. Bit like oil companies commissioning climate change studies from 'independant scientists' who miraculously find no link between climate change and the burning of fossil fuels.

Marking your own homework always results in a 100% pass. It may not be correct but you still score yourself 100%
 
His deputy will take his place
A man called Rock Hugo Basil Feilding-Mellen
His expenses claims are scandalous

A man totally out of touch with his poorer residents in an era of so called AUSTERITY especially for councils and council tax payers

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...voids-bash-at-his-family-estate-a3568101.html

https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/contactsdirectory/CllrPublicInfo.aspx?tab=4&seed=councillor rock feilding-mellen&key=4881

Can't even pay for his own football tickets.....he's loaded the ****
 
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