Grenfell Tower: Community member felt sense of duty to run for council

Claire Simmons said the response to the fire "could be characterised as at best neglect and at worst conscious cruelty"

A councillor who lived near Grenfell Tower said she ran for office in May this year after watching the council's "chilling" response to the fire.

Claire Simmons watched the west London tower burning from near her home on Lancaster Road in North Kensington, on 14 June 2017.

It was "the most horrific thing I've ever seen in my life", she said.

She was elected to Kensington and Chelsea Council as a Labour councillor for the ward that includes Grenfell.

Seventy-two people died after the blaze broke out at the tower in the kitchen of a fourth floor flat at the 23 storey tower block.

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The response to the fire "could be characterised as at best neglect and at worst conscious cruelty", Ms Simmons said.

The academic said before the fire she "never, ever would have put myself forward to be a councillor".

But in the aftermath of the disaster she felt a "sense of the duty" to do "whatever you can to make sure that this is not in vain".

Ms Simmons said: "People deserve change and justice and whatever small thing I can do to assist or encourage that then that's what I feel I must do."

Tuesday will be five years since the Grenfell Tower fire which killed 72 people

During the chaos, Ms Simmons said she became "alarmed" that there appeared to be "no official" response to the community on the streets.

"There were people not knowing where to go. There were people with children who had just been evacuated but with nowhere to go," she said.

Her political ambitions started when she saw residents "treated as second-class citizens even while undergoing this most horrific trauma".

Ms Simmons said she had attended many council meetings after the fire "looking for at least one tiny, tiny piece of any indication that there is some care anywhere for this community in this trauma".

Missing persons signs, candles and tributes were laid near the tower block in the days after the fire

"Wherever you look it seemed there was none," she said.

"That's a very painful place to be and it's a realisation which is chilling."

A Kensington and Chelsea Council spokesperson said: "Our first and last thoughts are with those who lost their lives.

"The council has pointed out its own failings in statements to the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry and continues to participate fully.

"We are deeply sorry that the council did not do more to help bereaved, survivors and residents when they most needed help."

Kensington and Chelsea Council has apologised for "not doing more to help bereaved, survivors and residents"

On the community's recovery, the spokesperson said: "We have a dedicated service for bereaved and survivors and over 95% of the over 700 bereaved and survivors are accessing this."

The council has spent £50m to support the Grenfell Recovery Strategy over a five-year period from 2019, which was matched by the NHS locally, the spokesperson added.

A spokesperson for the Department for Housing, Communities and Levelling Up said: "The Grenfell Tower tragedy must never be allowed to happen again.

"Our thoughts are with the bereaved families, survivors and residents."

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