{"id":35343,"date":"2019-12-06T11:18:20","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T11:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=35343"},"modified":"2019-12-06T11:18:20","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T11:18:20","slug":"londons-first-female-commissioner-to-step-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/londons-first-female-commissioner-to-step-down\/","title":{"rendered":"London\u2019s first female commissioner to step down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The London Fire Commissioner Danny Cotton has agreed to step down at the end of the year.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cotton, who has been highly criticised for London\u2019s Fire Brigade\u2019s (LFB) response to Grenfell Tower fire \u2013 where 72 people died, had previously announced that she would retire in April 2020 \u2013 four months later than agreed.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">London Fire Commissioner to step down <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MLT4vCwEUn\">https:\/\/t.co\/MLT4vCwEUn<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3ZdAnPwWhw\">pic.twitter.com\/3ZdAnPwWhw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LondonFire\/status\/1202887170123587586?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 6, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>After a public inquiry into the Grenfell fire found LFB\u2019s preparation and response had serious failings, concluding \u201cmany more lives\u201d could have been saved.<\/p>\n<p>Grenfell United have released their response to Cotton resigning: \u201cthe change in leadership is needed to keep Londoners safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Our reaction to the news that London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton will step down on 31 December: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/psljvcTQZi\">pic.twitter.com\/psljvcTQZi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Grenfell United (@GrenfellUnited) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GrenfellUnited\/status\/1202893594216058880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 6, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Ms Cotton, 50, has served the fire and rescue service for over three decades and was London\u2019s first female commissioner.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: \u201cI want to thank Danny Cotton for her 32 years of service at the London Fire Brigade.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She was London Fire Brigade\u2019s first woman Commissioner, has helped to inspire people from all backgrounds into considering a role in fire and rescue service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also added that her retirement was the \u201cright\u201d decision.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On 14 June 2017, one of the UK\u2019s biggest modern disasters took place.<\/p>\n<p>A malfunctioning fridge-freezer caused a fire in Grenfell Tower on the fourth floor, spreading upwards rapidly and killing 72 people.<\/p>\n<p>It took 25 minutes for the fire to spread 20 storeys from its source to the top of the tower.<\/p>\n<p>The scale of the fire has been blamed on the cladding used during the tower\u2019s most recent renovation. Since the disaster, both the insulation and cladding failed fire safety tests. The role the fire brigade had also been criticised.<\/p>\n<p>A public Inquiry was initiated and hearings opened in September 2017 and was led by Sir Martin Moore-Bick.<\/p>\n<p>The Phase 1 report was published on 30 October 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Moore-Bick argued LFB\u2019s \u201cgravely inadequate preparation and planning\u2026 fell below standards\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Concluding the \u2018Stay put\u2019 policy \u2013 which is standard procedure &#8211; caused deaths: \u201cFewer people would have died if the order to evacuate had been given by 2am,\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The results put pressure on London\u2019s fire commissioner Danny Cotton to step down.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Words: Dan Branston l Photo: Matt Writtle, Evening Standards<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The London Fire Commissioner Danny Cotton has agreed to step down at the end of the year. Cotton, who has been highly criticised for London\u2019s Fire Brigade\u2019s (LFB) response to Grenfell Tower fire \u2013 where&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":35351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,93,134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-london","category-news","category-uknews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}