More complex than the King's Cross Fire?
Sir Thayne Forbes has now held his first hearing for the inquest into the cause of death of the six victims of the fire at Lakanal House in Camberwell on 3 July.
He said it was an opportunity for all those with an interest in the fire to declare it.
The families of those who died are all represented by top notch lawyers as are Southwark Council, so the stage is set for a bruising engagement to try and get to the truth of what happened and ultimately who is responsible.
Local reports suggest that the local authority has already spent £300,000 on "specialist" external legal advice arising out of the Lakanal fire.
One wonders what the Director of Legal Services at Southwark makes of this. Their team of well paid officials presumably are not up to the job of preparing sound guidance for the executive authority of the borough.
Interestingly whilst officialdom can draw on public resources to defend its decisions, the families are reliant on the Legal Services Commission to accept their applications for Legal Aid.
This is a case which the judge described as of the utmost importance; it would be interesting indeed if the Legal Aid Minister turned down the applications for legal aid.
The day of the hearing was coincidently the same day as the birthday of Diane Francesquini, the young mother who died with her two children after being sent back into the blaze by fire-fighters.
Her partner Raphael Cervi was in court to hear that no inquest would start before next summer alongside Mbet Udoaka who lost his wife and young child.
We also learnt that post mortems on those killed are still waiting to be completed, six months after they died!
That is a long time for the families to start to get closure. The principal delay for the inquest proper is the time it is taking to complete the investigations into the fire by the police, fire and health and safety authorities.
The Met Police are the lead investigator and have said that their enquiries are ongoing and forensic fire tests still need to be completed.
Leader of the House of Commons and local MP Harriet Harman came along the hearing. Harman (a legal QC) questioned the pace of these reports. As she put it other residents need to know if there are safety issues which they need to consider having seen "bodies being taken out of the building".
Southwark Council issued a statement after the hearing which once again used the hackneyed line that the investigation is complex. Is it really as complex as say the investigations into the King's Cross Fire 22 years ago?
On the 18 November 1987 31 people were killed as a devastating fire swept through the ticket hall at Kings Cross. A public inquiry opened within four months on 1 February and was concluded nine months after the fire on June 24 1988. New fire precaution regulations were introduced by 1989.
What is so "complex" about the fire at Lakanal House which means that investigations are going to take longer than the whole Kings Cross process from start to finish?
Time for these investigating authorities to start giving some firm explanations as to the complexity of their enquiries; which means the families will have to wait until after the May elections to get within a sniff of justice.
I’m Kurt Barling, BBC London’s Special Correspondent. This is where I discuss some of the big topical issues which have an impact on Londoners' lives and share stories which remind us of our rich cultural heritage. 
Comment number 1.
At 13:49 17th Dec 2009, perronetblogger wrote:Six months for a postmortem? An unacceptable and outrageous insult to the grieving families.
A year to complete investigations? If there was even a snif of (whisper it) terrorism would it take so long - No. So it's complexity is not the issue. Please Kurt, keep asked them what these complexities are.
£300K of council taxpayers money on specialist legal advice? Hoorah - now we get to pay for the legal defence for the very people responsible for the issues AND for the repairation required by their negligence!
Justice? Has the fire service really devolved ALL it's responsibility for fire safety? If LFB might have a case to answer, isn't there a conflict of interest with them carrying out the investigation?
I smell a whitewash coming up...
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