Residents of the three blocks of flats at the foot of Grenfell Tower have expressed anger at the local council for its chaotic response to the disaster and its continued failure to deliver information about whether their homes were safe.



Despite assurances that the council presence would be stepped up, there was still widespread outrage at the absence of any official able to reassure them.

Many were concerned by a decision to close a nearby tube line because of a risk of debris falling from Grenfell Tower, pointing out that the track was further from the block than their homes.

Nina Masroh, who lives in a flat at the base of the tower, said the only contact she had had from the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), which manages the estate for the council, was two short texts on Friday telling her she could return home but warning that there would be no hot water or gas.

She remained worried about whether her flat and the block were safe amid conflicting advice from police officers stationed around the building.

“We don’t feel safe,” said Masroh, who works at Kensington Aldridge academy, the school by the tower – which remains closed and is sending pupils to study elsewhere in the borough.

“We are closer to the tower than the school and the tube line, and they are both closed because of the risk of falling debris. There’s debris on my balcony. We’ve had no one here to tell us if it is safe. It is ridiculous. We feel so angry.”

Residents who met Theresa May in Downing Street on Saturday issued a statement criticising KCTMO. “With the exception of very few junior officers, the estate managers have been invisible in the aftermath of the tragedy,” it said.

There were accusations of insensitivity about the way that some survivors had been rehoused. A woman who was among residents to meet the prime minister said one person who escaped Grenfell Tower had been given a room on the 14th floor of a hotel, and questioned whether that was appropriate for a traumatised survivor.

Kensington’s new Labour MP, Emma Dent Coad, also raised concerns. She told the BBC’s Sunday Politics: “There’s one woman this morning and her child, they have been moved three times since Wednesday into different accommodation. That’s absolutely appalling.”

Families carrying bags of belongings returned to flats less than 20 metres from the base of the tower block on Sunday.

The burned-out building was visible through an exit at one end of the Testerton Walk block. The exit was being guarded by a police officer, and half the corridor was cordoned off, but families were ducking under the police barrier to return home.

One woman, originally from the Philippines, who did not want to give her name, had returned with her eight-month-old baby to clean her flat at the end of the block, a few steps from the tower.

“We were told we could come back at our own risk,” she said. “We don’t have much information. We want to go home. We think it is safe.”

Her neighbours along the corridor were less sure. A library assistant, who also did not want to be named, said she was concerned about the structural safety of the tower and dismayed to have had no reassurance from anyone in an official role.

These families will not receive the £5,500 compensation package announced by Downing Street, which is only for those whose homes were destroyed, but they remain worried about their prospects.

“We were told we would be given temporary accommodation and then we were told that the priority was people from the tower block itself,” the library assistant said.

“We asked the police if the fire brigade has given it the all-clear. The police said they didn’t have that information. They said we had to ask the council, but we haven’t seen anyone from the council. We think they are hiding.”

She said she was worried about pollution levels. Her 13-year-old daughter was very traumatised and had started to cough.

Her daughter’s best friend had lived in the tower, and the pair had spoken by phone while the fire raged, but the friend was now presumed dead.

“She’s complaining of headaches,” she added. “No one has told us if there is an asbestos risk. No one is here testing the air. We don’t know if it is toxic. Every time I close my eyes, I see the fire.”

Yousif, a retail manager living in the same block, was also frustrated that the only contact he had had from the council was by text. He was too nervous to return home to sleep. “We don’t trust the council to know what’s best for us,” he said.

There was confusion about who was eligible for temporary hotel accommodation. Several dozen people were understood to have slept at the Westway centre on Saturday. Many families felt they had no option but to return to their flats, despite the absence of hot water.

One resident said he spent hours waiting at the Westway sports centre on Friday for information about the safety of his flat. There had been some council officials around when the Queen arrived but “nobody came to talk to me”, he said.

One woman was upset because her mother, who is 89, had been taken from the corridor and rehoused in a “dirty, stinking care home in Acton”. “She is so confused,” she said. “She’s been crying all day.”

The council did not respond to requests for information about the rehousing operation or the money allocated to victims. An employee of an organisation assisting the council said she had found their operation “breathtakingly incompetent”, and that there was still no comprehensive list of tenants in the estate who needed help.

Nick Paget-Brown, the Conservative leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, defended the response to the tragedy. “There is an effective, coordinated relief effort on the ground and I’m sorry if people haven’t seen that,” he told the BBC.