Titbits – council fiddles with freesheet as fire safety response put on ice

◆ Mayor Philip Glanville took to Twitter on Thursday 22 June to promise “further info” on fire safety would be released the next day.

The info materialised on the council’s website at half past five on a Friday evening. When asked why, the Mayor said “staff, resident representatives and councillors” needed to be briefed.

He continued: “We also ensured that up-to-date information was in Hackney Today. Once this work was complete, we published it online.

“I would not accept that 17:33 was in anyway an issue as the information was designed to be from the council to the community not a statement to the media.”

So why give it to a council-run freesheet, before posting it on the council website at 5.30pm on a Friday, when few are likely to read it?

A mayor who makes announcements on Twitter and wants to talk directly to “the community” rather than inform the media. Who does that remind you of?

◆ Two days: How soon after the Grenfell Tower fire Hackney Council had completed “initial cladding tests”. Twelve days: How long it took the council to tell the media about the tests.