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Two caretakers who worked at Grenfell Tower have said they were given “too much work”, which led to “cutting corners” and repairs being “left or not raised”.
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry heard today from Paul Steadman and Robert Regan, who were both employed as caretakers, or estate services assistants (ESAs), by Kensington and Chelsea Management Organisation (KCTMO), which managed all council-owned housing in the borough before 2018.
In his witness statement to the inquiry, Mr Regan said: “I felt that the ESAs had too much work, which I consider akin to cutting corners.”
“This did inevitably lead to many jobs getting either left or not raised due to other commitments pushed on to the ESAs,” the statement added.
Among other things, caretakers were responsible for carrying out weekly health and safety inspections on all the blocks within their patch, which involved checking lifts and communal fire doors.
When asked to elaborate on his statement today, Mr Steadman said the “patches” that caretakers’ were asked to cover “got bigger and bigger” as KCTMO did not replace all caretakers after they left.
“The intention is to cover everything, but that wasn’t always the case. So you cover the really important parts and hope and that was it. That’s all you can do. What can you do?,” he said.
Mr Regan’s comments were echoed by Mr Steadman, who said in a statement that “some of the caretakers have to fit in too much work for their day to allow”.
He said that one caretaker had roughly 40 blocks in their patch and that KCTMO set a time limit of between 30 and 60 minutes for the inspection of a block, which he said was not enough time for a large block like Grenfell.
Mr Steadman also said that KCTMO stopped replacing caretakers who “retired or left over the years” so the work of those who remained increased.
“We’d been complaining to the TMO for the last four or five years that we haven’t got enough time or enough people, but they just don’t listen,” he said in a statement.
Mr Regan also said today that he believed the fire safety training he was given as a caretaker at KCTMO was “piecemeal”.
In his statement he claimed that before the fire at Grenfell he did not receive training on issues including smoke control, evacuation, flat entrance doors, dry risers and fire risk assessments.
Today he said the yearly fire safety training that caretakers received was “repetitive” and did not cover many of the fire safety issues he encountered in his day-to-day work.
The inquiry continues.
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