Grenfell Tower was inspected 16 TIMES by council officials but they STILL failed to stop deadly cladding on £10m makeover
But the checks failed to stop the use of the flammable cladding blamed for spreading the fire which killed 79 residents
THE renovation works at Grenfell Towers were inspected 16 TIMES by Kensington and Chelsea council, it's been reported tonight.
However, the checks failed to stop the use of the flammable cladding which has been blamed for spreading the fire which killed 79 residents.
inspections were spread over almost two years during the £10m refurbishment project between 2014 and 2016.
The probes appear not to have spotted that the building was being clad in a material effectively banned for use on tall buildings by the government.
The Conservative-run authority told the Guardian the first inspection took place on 29 August 2014 and the last was on 7 July 2016, at which point a completion certificate was issued.
Judith Blakeman, a local Labour councillor who represents the Grenfell residents, said: “This raises the question of whether the building regulations officers were sufficiently competent and did they know what they were looking at.
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"It also begs a question about what they were actually shown. Was anything concealed from them.”
Earlier tonight it was revealed insulation fitted to the building gave off a highly toxic cyanide gas which may have led to the deaths of some of the 79 confirmed victims, it’s been claimed.
An expert has claimed insulation boards fitted to the outside of the building during a previous makeover produce a deadly gas when they burn.
Their positioning meant every flat could have been filled with enough gas to kill those inside.
At least three of those injured in the fire have been treated with an antidote for hydrogen cyanide poisoning in hospital.
However, it’s feared the number of those affected could be higher.
On Wednesday, as the first funeral of a victim took place, Theresa May apologised in parliament for what she described as “a failure of the state, local and national, to help people when they needed it most."
