Conservative MP for Kensington Felicity ‘Flicka’ Buchan should be utterly ashamed of herself for voting against safety measures to prevent another Grenfell Tower disaster
Last night, the Conservative Party disgracefully led the way to beat the Fire Safety Bill in the House of Commons by a margin of 318 to 188.
Most surprisingly, leading the way against a proposed piece of legislation that would have put the “official fire safety recommendations made during phase of the Grenfell inquiry put into law” was Felicity Buchan MP – whose Kensington constituency includes the very same tower where 72 people died and 74 others were hospitalised as a result of a catastrophic fire exacerbated by flammable cladding.
Summed up best last night by Evolve Politics, the perfectly sensible recommendations rejected by Buchan (‘Flicka’ to her friends) – a woman who previously said “up yours” to her 69% remain voting constituents – and her colleagues included:
- Creating national guidelines for carrying out partial or total evacuations of high-rise buildings during emergencies.
- Urgent inspections of fire doors contained in all multi-residential buildings.
- A legal requirement for the owners or managers of multi-residential buildings to check fire doors at least every three months to ensure they are working effectively.
- A legal requirement for the owners or managers of high-rise buildings to provide details of external walls and the materials used to the local fire service, and inform them of any changes.
- A legal requirement for the owners or managers of high-rise buildings to provide paper and electronic versions of building plans to local fire services.
- A legal requirement to ensure all high-rise buildings have a premises information box which includes a copy of floor plans.
- Regular inspections of lifts required for use by firefighters and the mechanism that allows them to take control of it.
The Steeple Times contacted Miss Buchan for comment via Twitter early Tuesday. Tellingly, ‘Flicka’ has yet to respond as to why she failed to support measures that – if they had been in place on 14th June 2017 – could most definitely have saved her constituents’ lives.
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