Anne Collings and Claire Furmedge died on 23 July 2006 when a giant inflatable artwork, Dreamspace, broke free of its moorings at Riverside Park in Chester le Street. It is four years since their death and a year since the criminal trial of the late Maurice Agis, the artist who designed the artwork.
Last year’s criminal trial focused on the mistakes Mr Agis made when Dreamspace was installed. However, the body who invited him to exhibit, Chester le Street District Council, have yet to explain to the families of the dead women how and why they failed in their duties in allowing the structure to be put up in a public park. The council has been charged and pleaded guilty to a health and safety offence and was fined £20,000 in March 2009. At the original criminal trial Lady Justice Cox said that the council’s scrutiny of the application to exhibit the Dreamspace structure was wholly inadequate but that a greater fine would serve only to punish the local community.
The council has blamed its own Safety Advisory Group for the tragedy, saying it did not scrutinise the risk assessment carried out before the installation properly.
The families will not be legally represented at the inquest which takes place in Chester le Street today. The council declined to provide funding to the family for legal representation saying that it was ‘not necessary’.
Claire and Anne’s families hope is that the inquest will establish how the council and its Safety Advisory Group approved the installation without the most basic health and safety checks being made, and what other councils should do in future to avoid such a catastrophic failure taking place again.
For more information please contact Vijay Ganapathy or Sally Moore on 020 7650 1200.
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