11 July (Part 2) - Modesty Blaze
There was no way I could get to last week’s Resources Scrutiny meeting, another meeting was completely unavoidable, in any case, Steven Hall’s meeting is not the most entertaining way to spend an evening and there is always the webcast for a catch up. I lost the opportunity to get another bum picture but apart from that I have no real regrets.
The
Chairman invited Gill Steward the Council’s Chief Executive to update the
Committee on the Council’s Emergency Plan, nothing to do with Grenfell Tower obviously.
(Actually that is true, the timing was purely coincidental.)
She said that one of the first things she did after coming to Bexley was to
review its Emergency Plan. She has created a rota of senior staff who would be
called upon to take charge should the need ever arise. Those people should not
drink on days when they head the rota.
There are systems in place to allow Councils to call on others for help and the
CE thought that in Kensington “it was not activated as quickly as it should be
and our collective experience is that you call for help [as soon as you can]”.
Bexley has supplied “mutual aid” to Kensington and Camden Councils.
“You should be really proud of our team, they absolutely know what they are
doing. They are calm and measured at all times, any advice they give is
absolutely bang on and I want to give you that assurance.”
Let’s hope that the immodest Mrs. Steward’s plans are never tested.
Councillor John Husband (Labour, Lesnes Abbey) asked where the money had come
from to fund the expeditions into West and North London. “A contingency fund.”