Concerns have been raised over how many bereaved families were spoken to before the government’s decision to demolish Grenfell Tower. Deputy prime minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner met bereaved families on Wednesday evening to tell them the decision. Grenfell United, which represents some of the survivors and the bereaved, claims their voices have been ignored. Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00The covered remains of Grenfell Tower are a constant reminder of the tragedy that took place
00:06here in June 2017. 72 people were killed when fire spread throughout the tower block in West London.
00:14However, the government's decision to demolish the tower has been met with anger by many relatives
00:20and survivors. Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner met bereaved families on
00:26Wednesday evening to tell them the decision. Grenfell United, which represents some of the
00:31survivors and the bereaved, claim their voices have been ignored. They say the Deputy PM could
00:37not give a reason to demolish the tower and would not say how many families she spoke to
00:43during the four-week consultation period. Independent structural engineering advice
00:48given to the government says the significantly damaged parts of the building should be taken down.
00:54Obviously a decision has got to be made. The Deputy Prime Minister will be setting that out
00:58tomorrow, so we'll see the full detail of that. I think first and foremost we do need to always
01:06have in our minds eye the victims in this terrible, terrible tragedy.
01:13One local councillor says demolition will cause a lot of upset locally,
01:17but adds that for some the tower's continued presence is a painful reminder.
01:22The tower represents very different things for different people. Some people see it as a memorial,
01:28some people see it as a rebuke to those who are responsible, and some people it breaks their
01:34heart every day, and I'm in that team actually, just to see it and I get flashbacks when I look
01:40at it, so I don't like looking at it. But there are certainly people who see it as a sacred site.
01:47Since 2020, the Grenfell Memorial Commission has been looking at ways of creating a permanent
01:52reminder of what happened here. It's a memory, it'll be a memory for us, you know, what if they
02:00do something nice with nice water, a fountain, it'll be so nice, you know, and that's one thing
02:07we're fighting for now. We don't want anyone to forget what happened that day. What a Grenfell
02:14Memorial will look like is a long process involving thousands of voices and a lot of
02:20passion. What we do know is that this part of West London will soon start to look very different.