Grenfell Tower fire: Community feels ‘forgotten’

On the night of the Grenfell Tower fire, Sami Hannachi was on the phone to his friend and tower resident, Steve Power.

Mr Power, 63, went back into the tower to wake up his daughter and to try to get his dogs out.

He never made it out alive.

“It was a night we will never forget for the rest of our lives, ” said Mr Hannachi, who has lived on the Lancaster West Estate for more than 40 years, and is a core witness to the Grenfell Inquiry, external.

“We have been forgotten on this estate,” he said.

Mr Hannachi described what it has been like living on the Lancaster West Estate and in the shadow of Grenfell Tower since the fire: “We’ve been living in a building site for the last seven years,” he said.

“The refurb that has been happening is disturbing people every day. We’ve had no normality. We’ve been like the forgotten estate.”

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea said in response that noisy building works were restricted to Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

It said it had offered temporary flats for people to move into, bookable work spaces and extra financial support to those residents affected by noise.