‘£2m payout’ over swing tragedy
A COUNCIL is facing a £2million payout after it admitted failings over the death of a five-year-old girl after a swing hanging from a fungus-ridden tree stump collapsed on her in front of her mum at a playground.
Tower Hamlets Council appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday where it admitted failings over the death of Alexia Walenkaki.
She was playing on a rope swing with friends in Mile End Park, east London, on July 17, 2015, when a tree trunk holding it fell on her a day before her sixth birthday.
The youngster went into cardiac arrest and was given CPR at the scene, but died in hospital about an hour later.the council earlier signed off a £2million “extraordinary cost item” to pay the fine and legal costs.
The Health and Safety Executive charged the council with breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act.
A probe found the council had failed to organise annual inspections of play equipment and the tree used had become rotten prior to collapse.
The council said: “We are deeply sorry this tragic incident happened in one of our parks. Alexia should have been kept safe while using Mile End Park. No words can adequately express our regret that she was not.”