I think the tower fire was just a fraction of the problem, it is far greater, we pay a LABC to control what is done in buildings, and they have failed again and again to do their job, and it seems no one is ever found guilty of dereliction of duty.
Back in the 70's I worked for a council, and it was decided they were wasting money, so some system needed to be put in to show we were earning our keep, so the department I worked for roads and bridges, decided to put in a bonus scheme, and to be frank we were not over worked, was not unknown for us to play foot ball in the workshop.
The result was we did not have enough work, so we started to do work for other departments, health and safety, the theatre, the library department, etc. What became very evident was some departments worked very hard, and some were getting money for nothing. It was hard to believe we were all working for the same council.
However to sack some one working for the council was hard, there would be sidewards moves to put them out of harms way, but you really had to do something really bad in most cases, there were exceptions, the tender system resulted in driving 20 miles to get a tyre valve, so not unknown to buy one with ones own money and book some overtime, which if caught would mean the sack, but not for poor workmanship.
And it seems little has changed, not only the council, when the Part P law was being debated, it was pointed out the average percent of workers who get alzheimer's before retirement age, and the view was expressed that we should see that percent at least of people who were thrown off the schemes, not really a valid argument as people would remove themselves from the schemes, but there does seem to be very few who are told sorry we will have to let you go, and the council workers know this, and fail to do their job.
In some ways it seems wrong, one mistake and down the road, however it is the threat of such which keeps most of us on our toes, we say "jobs worth" but is that so bad? If you do the job wrong you should be taken to task, even when lives are not lost, Nick Leeson of Barings Bank fame had imprisonment as a result of doing a bad job, and workers should not be exempt when they over or under step the mark.
But when I had my accident I knew who was to blame, and that was not my foreman, but he lost his job, and what we really don't know is who actually made the mistake to the Grenfell tower, was it a rouge inspector, who set out to hide what was going on, or was it a group of people, clearly down to the LABC but the LABC is made up of people, and what is not so sure is how it really happened, were the inspectors over worked, were there back handers, how were so many high rise flats clad with the same material without anyone realising it was wrong? One LABC OK I can understand, but there were so many.
I would guess every trade has had something similar but not the deaths of this one. In my own trade as an electrician we are seeing arguments over the EICR for rented property, be it metal consumer unit, or RCD protection we debate what the rules require, and if the electrical safety council says a plastic fuse box with no RCD protection is still serviceable we tend to accept it. We accept their interpretation of the joint IET and BSi rule book. We consider them as an authority, but in real terms they have no official standing, I could call myself the council for electrical safety and publish my own views.
In the same way as before I retired I was a member of the IET, I suspect there is some organisation who bring the LABC inspectors together, and decide what the national standard should be, and the same way in which the IET listen to the London Fire brigade when writing the rules book I am sure what ever organisation brings the LABC inspectors together does the same.
But once I complete the wiring and issue the installation certificate, that is it, I can't in the future decide ups I got it wrong, and issue a re-call, Omar Khayyám lived 18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131 and even back then he realised
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
So once passed it has passed, if I built a house with planning permission if 5 years latter the council said sorry we got it wrong, you can't build that, I would not be assumed, and I would want compensation. Once the completion certificate has been issued I am home and dry, if there are errors tough it's too late. And if the council realise they should have not granted permission, then they need to pay for their error. And it seems the councils have made errors, and issued completion certificates they should not have issued, so they need to pay, or prove the builder did some thing underhanded.
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