hello, you're watching afternoon live. i'm simon mccoy. today at 2... a grandfather who died sheltering six people in his top floor flat, as they tried to escape the grenfell tower fire, has been hailed a hero by his sister. he should not have been killed in this way. he did not deserve to die by suffocation, cyanide poisoning, and ultimately burned until his remains were no more that 30% of what he was. the london borough responsible for grenfell says it will install more fire—resistant doors in thousands of its flats and houses. wholly unacceptable — the transport secretary's verdict on the disruption on the railways due to timetable changes. the "terrible loss" of a boy who had his life ahead of him — police in wolverhampton launch a murder inquiry after a 15—year—old boy is stabbed to death. coming up on afternoon live all the sport. what are we talking, tennis? yes,

catsuits, serena williams, the latest from the french open tennis. the good news from huddersfield town as david wagner signed a new contract. phil avery has the weather. and there has been plenty of weather. this is the greatest of concerns. it is not like that everywhere. some glorious sunshine in parts of scotla nd glorious sunshine in parts of scotland and northern ireland. i will tell you who gets what in the coming days, in a few minutes. thank you. also coming up... not so great — tony the tiger gets a frosty response, as a group of mps says cartoon or fictional characters, like tony and the milky bar kid, should no longer be used to promote unhealthy food. hello, everyone. this is afternoon live. for seven days the

grenfell inquiry has held its commemoration hearings — difficult and emotional days, with stories of pain and loss. on this — the final day of those hearings — a story of inspiration and heroism, of a grandfather who sheltered six people in his top floor flat on the night of the disaster. the family of raymond bernard paid an emotional tribute to the 63—year—old, who died in the fire, along with 71 others. from the inquiry in west london, tom burridge reports. raymond bernard lived in grenfell tower for raymond bernard lived in grenfell towerfor more raymond bernard lived in grenfell tower for more than 30 years. he would have celebrated his 64th birthday last week. my beloved ray was my modern day moses, my hero. if you were to ask anyone who knew him and who lived in grenfell tower or the surrounding area, they would tell you that ray was a kind, gentle, compassionate man. his dog marley died alongside him and the bodies of seven

of his neighbours were also found in his top—floor flat. there was no way down to escape, the only alternative was to head towards the top floor. there, they met ray and took refuge in his flat. the positioning of the bodies of debra, jessica, berkti and biruk were on my brother's bed with my brother resting beside the bed on the floor. there was a video message from his 84—year—old mother, who never imagined burying her son. raymond was one of my best children, and he passed away from an accident and i really miss him very much. # still waters run deep... this was raymond's memorial service, his family left angry and bewildered.

death should have taken my brother naturally, he should not have been killed in this way. he did not deserve to die by suffocation, cyanide poisoning and ultimately burned until his remains are no more than 30% of who he was. sakineh afrasiabi, a beautiful mother and grandmother. she loved the queen, putting an image of herself alongside the royals. she had moved into grenfell tower reluctantly. she was disabled and after a long wait for social housing was offered a flat on the 18th floor. her family say she was failed by the council. this we've come to the conclusion that it was not only the horrifying fire that took my mother's life that night. the discrimination and failure in duty of care by the housing allocations team which resulted in a vulnerable, physically disabled and partially sighted pensioner to be housed on the 18th floor of a tower block equally took the life of my mum.

brave tributes and harrowing memories of a night which ended and ruined so many lives. the inquiry knows it needs the confidence of the loved ones of those killed in the months to come. tom burridge, bbc news at the grenfell tower inquiry. the london borough of kensington and chelsea, which is home to grenfell tower, is planning to replace thousands of doors on its houses and flats to improve fire safety. it comes as an independent report into last year's fire has criticised the council for its response to the disaster. james waterhouse reports. as fire crews battled to put the fire out at the tower, on the ground people were already looking to give. whether it was food, clothes, supplies or even shelter. now a report, commissioned by muslim aid, working with local charities, has found these displays of human compassion formed the front line of the response to the fire. it found the reaction by authorities, mainly kensington and chelsea borough council,

was weak and lacked direction or coordination. that, says the report, left local volunteers with often no experience of aid work trying their best to help, often overwhelmed. the authority says it will not comment on this until the main public inquiry into what happened is finished. but it has announced plans to replace its fire doors in its social housing across the whole borough. there is a big meeting next week. it reckons 4,000 new ones are needed, costing around 5.5 million. the reason? failed safety tests. councillors say the doors at the grenfell tower didn't block fire for the required 30 minutes. despite these measures, today's focus at least is on what did not happen in the wake of the blaze, like a council helpline not being set up and charities having to plug the gaps. there is also a warning in the report that a tragedy like this could play out again. because of factors like climate change, vulnerability to terror attacks and the inherent risks

of life in crowded, unequal cities. there was complete chaos. i have been to many disasters around the world as an aid worker and i really did not expect to find this level of chaos and chaotic response in west london. so i think what we need to reflect on is that the local service actors again are the ones that are part and parcel of that provision and that response. in the days that followed, there wasn't a single person with a clipboard and hi—vis that we could turn to and get some answers from, or some direction, or some organisation. it was in fact the amazing hundreds of volunteers and the numerous anchor organisations in our community that came out and provided support and relief for us. in response, the council said, "we are committed to learning the lessons from the grenfell tragedy and therefore we welcome this report as part of the learning process." but the charities say the lessons of this report are clear.

in the aftermath of a disaster like this the community should be at the centre of the response, not considered as an afterthought. james waterhouse, bbc news, at the grenfell tower. muslim aid's global communications co—ordinator madiha raza is here. you were there that night. you saw first—hand that initial response. what is your memory of what happened? i just what is your memory of what happened? ijust remember it being offered chaos when i arrived. i arrived quite early in the morning, around eight or nine o'clock, even though the fire had been raging for quite a few hours. i remember people being completely shocked and not knowing where to turn for information. muslim aid and other organisations were trying to help in any capacity they could. food, water, blankets. and thatjust

happened, did it? one of the critical things to emerge from the report is that the council and others were not there? exactly. it was all over the news first thing in the morning, as an international development and emergency organisation we are best prepared, at least abroad, to respond to something like this. we were quite shocked that the lack of coordination on the ground when they got to the site in the morning trying to offer our support. this report that we have launched is looking to highlight the amazing response the voluntary sector was able to provide in response to the fire. we are calling for the government and national actors to include the voice of voluntary sector organisations and local communities when they are sitting around the table trying to improve your coordination responses to such incidents. voluntary sector which is in many ways part of the community for which it was acting on that day,

would have been more aware of the immediate needs? exactly. local communities, save and non—faith communities, save and non—faith communities, are integral to society. it is those organisations that know the sensitivities on the ground. for example, a0 to 50% of those affected were muslim. they we re those affected were muslim. they were fasting of the time. being a faith —based organisation, muslim aid were able to help with the sensitivities of providing hallo food, clothing. those nuances were the local community is able to best respond. when there is absolute chaos, as there was that morning, first responders are still there, nobody knows how bad things are, how are the voluntary sector traded on the ground ? are the voluntary sector traded on the ground? —— treated. are the voluntary sector traded on the ground? —— treatedli

are the voluntary sector traded on the ground? -- treated. i would say that the voluntary sector organisations are welcomed by locals because they are trusted. because there was such a lack of local authority there, we weren't treated by them either way. it is the lack of coordination that we felt needed a better response. that's why the government have introduced the national critical incident response framework to try and get actors around the table to respond to this better. which sounds great. but when something happens, and those hours which follow immediately, that is when you need someone to grab it and say, this is what we need to do? you are say, this is what we need to do? you a re exactly say, this is what we need to do? you are exactly right. that is why we are exactly right. that is why we are saying that we need to start conversations, we have had conversations, we have had conversations already, getting local actors on the ground and around the table with national and government bodies, so that if something like this happened again, god forbid, we will that are prepared. i am

hopeful. you can only ever hope. will that are prepared. i am hopeful. you can only ever hopem is very good of you to comment. thank you so much. the transport secretary, chris grayling, says the rail industry "collectively failed its passengers", following a big overhaul of timetables earlier this month. his comments came in a letter to mps about changes to services operated by govia thameslink. our assistant political editor, norman smith, is in westminster. the transport secretary is not happy? he is very unhappy. he blames the whole rail industry for the chaos that commuters have had to endure. hundreds of services have been cancelled or delayed or altered asa been cancelled or delayed or altered as a result of this botched timetabled shake—up. and in the letter mr grayling blames network railfor taking too letter mr grayling blames network rail for taking too long to carry out infrastructure work, which has had a knock—on effect on the rail companies, he said, in getting the new timetables together, which has had on knock—on of getting arrangements with unions to schedule arrangements with unions to schedule

a new shift patterns, getting crews and trains in the right place. the only person it seems to me he hasn't blamed is himself. he says ministers we re blamed is himself. he says ministers were told there would only be limited disruption and were given no inkling of the people there has now been. this was the reaction one of those mps, huw merriman, the conservative mp for bexhill, many of whose constituents commute into london on those affected lines. it really only gets fixed when you are one central command. we keep being told we will have more joined up being told we will have more joined up prods from network rail and the train operators, but time and time again we get a rebrand and it never happens. you can't at the track and the train companies as separate beings. it doesn't seem to work. it will only work when you have got the train operators operating the rail, the signals, so you have one operation making decisions rather than other organisations not being

joint up. until that happens, this will carry on. who is to blame? i am joined by paul cox of the rmt union. what do you make of mr grayling's letter? i think it's absolutely disgraceful. it bears no relation to the truth of what has happened. the train company is responsible for what has happened. chris grayling has a poor —— supported them through thick and thin. they have provide an appalling service to the public for some four years. now mr grayling can't walk away from them any more so can't walk away from them any more so he has found that the network rail come in who tend to take the punishment without making any comments. he finds that very useful. historically, he has done this before. he blamed the rmt from official action, which wasn't true. now he has found someone else to blame. the train company and we have described as a basket case train company, asking for their removal

from just three years, need to be removed. as well as chris grayling re move removed. as well as chris grayling remove dust transport minister. he does not run the railways, he is not responsible for timetables. that is down to the companies? the company can't runa down to the companies? the company can't run a service, so surely someone has to take responsibility for removing them? if he supports them so much, we wouldn't be in the situation in today. —— if you didn't support them so much. he has nailed his colours to their mass than the can't walk away. he must find someone else to blame. network rail are not covered in glory in this but they are not responsible. even though he is the transport minister, they should, cried by christ and the ground and say this man is prevaricating, he is using it as an exclusive to tell lies. we saw mr

grayling taking back the virgin stagecoach line back into public ownership? is quite astonishing they would do that when people were at risk of losing money. he won't step in to save the long—suffering travelling public on the brighton to bedford line. it is absolutely scandalous. i can recount no experience on the railways like this, where a transport minister has supported such incompetence, and it just proves that he is incompetent himself. he is a disgrace to the government. it is time himself. he is a disgrace to the gove ofnent. it is time himself. he is a disgrace to the gove of him. it is time