"As You’ve Just Pointed Out, Downing Street Agrees With Me”
30 June 2017, 13:06 | Updated: 30 June 2017, 13:36
James O'Brien confirmed Labour Councillor Robert Atkinson's claim, saying “the high court ruled that the meeting should be open and we would have expected the council to respect that.”
Robert Atkinson, who was present at the adjourned council meeting, told James that: “the conservative council has tried to get out of it’s responsibility for housing by appointing a so called ‘independent tenant management organisation’ (TMO) who are not up to the job.”
“Now that it’s gone wrong, I am calling upon the council to take back responsibility for housing.”
James explained, that the TMO is “a form of arms length organisation”
The council remains the landlords, but “accountability stops one place short of them”
“The TMO has been a disaster from start to finish”, the councillor replied.
Enlightened by James that the TMO has four people on salaries higher than that of the Prime Minister's, he added: “The fact they are in office and get paid high salaries doesn’t mean that they have produced a decent service.”
This all comes after the Grenfell Tower council meeting was adjourned due to press being allowed in.
Robert Atkinson went on to say: “if the council claims it’s got that legal advice last night, I would like to see that legal advice.
“Even as layman, I can tell that that advice is wrong.
“As you’ve just pointed out, Downing Street agrees with me.”
