As Janice Wray concluded her evidence to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, her frustration at the workings of the TMO was loud and clear.
Asked about aspects of her work as the lead for health and safety in the TMO, she made many references to hounding others in the TMO and in the borough to respond to her requests to deal with fire safety matters in Grenfell Tower and other blocks under their management.
In the early part of her evidence, she was asked about the considerable backlog in outstanding actions arising from the fire risk assessments on blocks managed by the TMO. Lead Counsel to the Inquiry asked why she found this challenging to resolve, she said:
“I think I probably meant frustrating, really, because I was chasing people and meeting with team leaders and taking along statistics and escalating further up the organisation. It sometimes felt that things were still not moving as swiftly as they should. So, it’s a frustration in that it’s out of my control, yet I really need to try and achieve it.”
Rebecca Burton from the London Fire Brigade enforcement team followed Ms Wray in giving evidence on 16 June. Ms Burton took on the role of Fire Safety Team Leader for the boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham and RBKC in 2014. She was asked if she knew about the backlog of 1400 outstanding actions relating to fire risk assessments that existed in March 2014. She responded: “I was never told about any outstanding actions from any of the risk assessments.“
Ms Wray was the Health and Safety Facilities Manager for the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) at the time of the fire in 2017. She had joined the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in 1986 and after the fire and the dissolution of the TMO (it remains purely in name for the purposes of the Inquiry) she returned to RBKC as Facilities Manager from 2018.
Concluding the evidence session with Ms Wray, Richard Millett QC asked her whether she would have done anything different.
“I think with more resource I could have done more. I could have been more rigorous about auditing. I think we should have been able to find a way of expediting the fire risk actions which were outstanding. But, to the best of my ability, I was unable to find my way through that. It wasn’t for the want of trying.”
She added later: “I would just like to extend my sympathies to everyone who was affected by this tragedy.” Pausing to hold back tears, she added: “I’m sorry.”