NEARLY nine years after the Grenfell Fire, on 14th June 2017, the Metropolitan Police only yesterday announced that up to 57 individuals and 20 companies could face criminal charges over their roles in the disaster.
The Grenfell fire of June 14th 2017 killed 72 residents of the tower block in west London, after a kitchen fire in one of the flats in the block spread through the highly flammable cladding which the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Tory Council had recently installed to surround the block.
Following yesterday’s announcement, Yvette Williams from Justice for Grenfell, told News Line: ‘Obviously, we’re pleased there are going to be prosecutions and the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) hope that they will have charges by the 10th anniversary.
‘But there’s no word of apology or explanation as to why it’s taken nine years and what they have said are not words that are associated with law.
‘Our present PM used to be in charge of the CPS – maybe he could make an intervention and hurry things up. Or maybe they are hoping that David Lammy’s policy to get rid of juries will be in by then and they can be tried by their mates.
‘Regarding these 57 individuals they say are going to face charges, are they from the 20 companies or outliers? Or are they just using these statistics to fool us and try to bamboozle us as they have been doing all the way through?’
Joe Delaney, from Grenfell Action Group and Justice for Grenfell, told News Line: ‘It’s taken us nine years and it’s cautiously welcomed.
‘But in 2023 the Met said they had 145 officers working on the investigation. If it’s taken that many police nine years to reach this point in the investigation, it’s ridiculous for the police to tell us now that it’s reached the first of the three stages necessary to see someone inside a prison cell.
‘They said 20 companies and 57 individuals are facing charges. I would hope that “organisations” would be a better word to use than “companies”.
‘There will be no justice if Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and its officers and councillors are not on that list as well.
‘They put property development of public assets above safety and above the public service that they all committed to providing when they were elected or appointed to office.
‘If they don’t face prosecution then we don’t have faith in this process at all. They’ve got their hands in every part of this before, during and after.
‘If by saying “company” the Met Police are acknowledging that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea was not acting as a local authority and was instead turned into a private company serving the personal interests and political ideology of the councillors and officers involved, then we cautiously welcome this long overdue news.
‘It has taken us nine years to reach the stage we were promised we would be at the publication of the phase one inquiry report back in 2018.
‘We would hope that the CPS and the courts will now make every effort to ensure a successful prosecution and that those found guilty face the same weight and penalty of the law as seen in recent cases against protest activists.’
The Met said yesterday that it would submit evidence files to the Crown Prosecution Service by the end of September this year.
A final decision on whether to bring charges could take until June 2027. If the CPS then decides to prosecute, any trials are unlikely to begin before 2029.
Grenfell United said: ‘For our community, this is not news we meet with celebration. We meet it with caution, grief and determination. We have waited almost a decade for accountability.’
It added that the Ministry of Justice and the government must ensure the courts are properly resourced so prosecutions linked to Grenfell can be heard swiftly.