Kentish Express Ashford & District
Bereaved families forced to travel in review of inquests
Coroner service could be centralised by KCC
Bereaved families are having to travel across the county to attend inquests during an overhaul of the coroner service.
Most hearings are now being held at Archbishop’s Palace in Maidstone.
Kent County Council, which spends £3.4 million on the independent coroner system, wants to merge the county’s four coroner areas into one, to improve performance.
It has yet to open public consultation on its plan to centralise the service.
It has been done piecemeal so far, with the agreement of the chief coroner.
North east, central and south east Kent courts have come under the control of senior coroner Patricia Harding, but they remain separate jurisdictions.
It follows the retirement of coroners Rebecca Cobb and Rachel Redman.
Roger Hatch, coroner for the north west of the county, remains in post and his court will return to Gravesend after works at the Old Town Hall in the High Street are completed.
Hearings formerly held in Folkestone have been transferred more than 30 miles away to Maidstone. Inquests continue in the north east as normal.
To add to the uncertainty, the lease on the Archbishop’s Palace is due to expire in 2020 and the coroner service is then set to be transferred to Cantium House, opposite County Hall.
The merger of all four coroners’ areas into one would not mean all cases necessarily being held in Maidstone.
Public consultation and discus- sion by county councillors is now on the cards.
Earlier this year Cllr Trudy Dean, leader of the Liberal Democrats on KCC, attacked the service over its slow pace of work.
She said centralisation would bring welcome consistency, but said there should be some assistance for families who have to travel further and find the expense a problem.
She said: “Centralisation must not make it easier for KCC or any other agency to interfere with the conduct of cases and there must be strict safeguards.
“I find it disturbing that KCC agreed in February to my proposal to hold a special inquiry into these issues to ensure the coroners were delivering a valuefor-money service and operating in the best public interest.
“A number of staff and bereaved families contacted me suggesting they would support such an investigation and yet it has apparently been decided to go ahead with these changes without such an detailed inquiry.”