The council where the Grenfell tragedy took place threw three three disabled residents out of their care home when a fire risk assessment found their lives were in danger, families claimed.
Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council (KCBC) moved disabled wheelchair users after a recent fire safety report revealed their residential home was not safe for them to live on the first floor.
Ricardo ‘Ricky’ Clarke, 52, lived on the first floor of Piper House in Ladbroke Grove, west London, with two other residents, but he has spent three months living in temporary accommodation because of unsafe evacuation plans at his home.
His sister, Heather Clarke, claimed Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council (KCBC) gave her only 48 hours notice before they were evicted and cited building work as the reason for the move.
Stuck
He could even be moved out of the borough, she added.
Heather, 54, said they are stuck in temporary accommodation after being removed from their care home because a “substantial risk to life” was discovered.
She said she only found out about the fire risk assessment when she heard about another fire inspection and started asking questions and made her own Freedom of Information request.
The fire risk assessment report showed there was a substantial risk to residents in the event of a fire and the council needed to make changes to give the building a safer rating.
Ms Clarke accused the authority of kicking vulnerable residents out once this came to light and hiding the real reason, then threatening to remove them from the borough.
Ms Clarke said: “The council has deliberately hidden the truth from me and now they wish to move my brother further away from me.
“The council has always chosen the cheapest option regarding my brother’s care as opposed to trying to find practical solutions to issues.
“Ricky has never been more than 15 minutes away from me, if the council kicks him out of the borough, I will be utterly heartbroken.
“The council responded by kicking out vulnerable residents and hiding the real reason why.
“I implored the adult and social care team at Kensington and Chelsea, to be honest, but the lies kept on coming. The council is now threatening to kick Ricardo out of the borough.
Angry
“I had to request that myself through an FOI. They have not had any conversation with us about it, that is why I am so angry.
“I was told they would be moving him back into Piper House on the ground floor but since then I have been given constant excuses as to why he can’t go back, which do not make sense.
“They are dragging their feet with this. They suggested moving him out of the borough.”
She added Ricky does not have the same level of freedom in his temporary accommodation and the uncertainty of where he will be moved is causing the family distress.
She added: “He caught Covid in Alison House, where he is now. Three weeks ago.
“I had to really push for him to get vaccinated. I had to call up doctors and make appointments, they did not do it for us.”
The fire risk assessment, carried out last November, identified a substantial risk to life because a lowering device used to carry disabled residents downstairs one at a time took 20 minutes to reach the ground floor.
It also found that fire drills had only been done with staff at peak levels and not with the minimum number of three, as is typical at night.
The report concluded: “Unless improvements are made to the first floor means of escape or staffing levels to adequately evacuate all residents then no disabled residents should be living on the first floor.”
Hanne De Luca, whose son is a resident at Piper House, said there is not enough space to accommodate all the disabled residents on the ground floor.
She said she agreed with Ms Clarke that Ricky could swap rooms with her son Adrian, who is not a wheelchair user, so Ricky can live on the ground floor.
But he has not been able to do so because there have been problems installing a hoist.
Ms De Luca said: “Ricky needs a hoist to be moved from one place to the other,” she said. “They said the flat was not suitable and then it was, but it has not been done.
“There was a meeting with a social worker last week and they have finally come up with something.”
Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council said it had received the fire risk assessment in January and had moved the three disabled residents by February 3.
A spokesman for the authority added: “The independent fire risk assessment at Piper House indicated that tenants living on the first floor should be rehoused in more suitable accommodation which included moves to the ground floor.
“As a precautionary measure, and to allow ongoing refurbishment work to take place in rooms upstairs, we decided to move three people with limited mobility to alternative accommodation as quickly as possible.
“Having verified documents in relation to the fire alarm and emergency lighting testing, we are satisfied that the building is safe for the current residents living there.
“We are working with families to ensure people who require supported housing are given a home that suits their needs.”
Ms De Luca also expressed concern for the way the care provider, Learning Disability Network London (LDNL), runs the home.
Sued
She said: “They have been running it very badly. I found out a couple of weeks ago that each flat needs an emergency call system and I was in there on my own with my son and pulled the cord and it came off in my hand, it snapped.
“When I complained about it I was told it had been working intermittently since 2019.”
Ms Clarke worries that if her brother is moved to another borough it will be harder for her to monitor the quality of his care.”
In 2018 she has sued KCBC and LDNL for £15,000 for neglecting Ricky.
The council currently charge residents around £2,600 a month to live in studio flats in Piper House.
The council charges around £645 a week for the studio flat Ricky and other tenants were living in and all residents have assured tenancies, with each paying around £31,000 a year.
Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation – that managed council housing – and the borough council were accused of failing to uphold fire safety standards at the 24-story Grenfell Tower in the lead-up to the tragic blaze in June 2017.
In the aftermath of the devastating fire, the council’s leader, deputy leader and chief executive resigned, and the council took direct control of council housing from the KCTMO.
A pubic inquiry is currently ongoing, investigating how the council, fire brigade, and other agencies responded to the inferno that left 72 people dead.
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