KCTMO chief denies trying to ‘silence’ Grenfell councillor who raised refurbishment concerns

He said: “I think it was her behaviour which was causing people concerns and it got left with me to deal with.”

Ms Blakeman had been a member of both the TMO board and the committee for seven years but this was the first time a conflict of interest was raised.

Appearing before the inquiry in May, Ms Blakeman said she felt she had been “bullied” out of the HSPC meeting by Mr Black.

Part of Ms Blakeman’s concern was that a report on the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower had failed to include concerns raised by residents, despite many signing a petition criticising KCTMO’s role in the project.

Mr Black was also shown the modular management agreement for the project, which required KCTMO to seek views from residents about the refurbishment after it was completed.

Despite a review being carried out in early 2016, residents’ views were not sought and no such review was completed by the time of the fire in June 2017.

Mr Millett asked Mr Black why he had not insisted on residents’ views being taken.

“I can’t recall, apologies,” said Mr Black, adding: “I may have overlooked it.”

When pressed further Mr Black said that KCTMO was “resistant” to a review involving residents’ responses because it felt that the complaints were being driven by a “small group of individuals” and that “most people didn’t think like that”.

He continued: “When we checked with people on the ground, we weren’t always getting that feeling that people were up in arms.”

Mr Millett made particular reference to the now-infamous blog post by Grenfell resident Eddie Daffarn, which warned of a major fire at the tower.

When questioned by Mr Millett about whether he had seen the blog, Mr Black said he had, and that he would have shared it with his colleagues to consider what can be done.

However, Mr Black was shown an email from his colleague Barbara Matthews to another colleague Janice Wray that read: “I have spoken to Robert [Black] and he agrees we should do nothing. This is not the sort of website we should be responding to.”

Asked about the email, Mr Black said: “I can’t recall that conversation but if Barbara said I did, I did.”

Mr Millett concluded Mr Black’s evidence by asking him, in hindsight, what he would have done differently.

“If I could change things so there hadn’t been a fire I certainly wouldn’t have put the cladding on if I knew the situation. And I think I can only pass my condolences to the people who have lost loved ones and survived and managed to escape and there’s not much more I can say at the moment,” Mr Black answered.

The inquiry continues.