黑洞社区

Companies at the centre of the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower have downplayed the role they will play in the first phase of the public inquiry into last year鈥檚 fire.

CEP Architectural Facades, which supplied the ACM [aluminium composite material] cladding and window frames, and Rydon Maintenance, which was the main contractor on the tower鈥檚 refurbishment, both raised questions about their involvement in the inquiry鈥檚 first phase.

They also both said a lack of disclosure from the inquiry impinged upon their ability to contribute meaningfully to the inquiry at this stage.

In an opening statement, CEP said: 鈥淭here are two factors which are currently inhibiting CEP鈥檚 investigation of the issues. The first concerns disclosure. The second relates to access to the site for CEP鈥檚 own expert.

鈥淯ntil disclosure is complete and CEP鈥檚 expert has been given access to the site and sufficient time to complete his investigations, CEP will not be in a position to make any substantive submissions to the Inquiry.鈥�

The company said while it acknowledged the scale of the disclosure exercise facing the inquiry, the 鈥渧ery large quantity of documentation鈥� which is still to be disclosed meant its own investigations could not progress.

It also said it was critical that its expert was given access to the site as soon as possible.

The firm said: 鈥淧ut bluntly, it is impossible for experts to form their own views and to test the evidence of the inquiry鈥檚 experts without the benefit of the very access which the inquiry鈥檚 experts have had.鈥�

Meanwhile, Rydon said it was 鈥減roceeding on the basis that Phase 1 will be an exercise which is designed principally to achieve some detailed preliminary findings as to the source/origin of the fire, and a timeline for the spread of the fire and smoke, both externally or internally, together with when and where people within Grenfell Tower moved during the course of the night.鈥�

It said: 鈥淥n that basis, as has been set out above, in the light of its review of the evidence disclosed to date, Rydon anticipates that its involvement in Phase 1 is likely to be limited.鈥�

The first phase of the inquiry is a fact-finding stage with phase one not expected to wrap up until the end of October.

The second phase is not expected to begin until the new year and will focus on the construction, refurbishment and management of the building prior to the fire.

This week one of the QCs involved in the inquiry, Richard Millett, warned firms and government departments that had been asked to provide statements to 鈥渞esist the temptation to indulge in a merry-go-round of buck-passing鈥�.