Alexia Walenkaki swing death: Tower Hamlets Council fined £330,000
A council has been fined £330,000 after a five-year-old girl died when a swing set collapsed on her in east London.
Alexia Walenkaki was playing on a rope swing in Mile End Park in 2015, when a tree trunk holding the equipment fell. A court hearing on Wednesday heard Tower Hamlets Council failed to carry out an annual safety check which would have identified rot in the tree. The council was fined having previously admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It was also ordered to pay costs of £6,204. Alexia went into cardiac arrest and died in hospital about an hour after the equipment she was playing on collapsed on 17 July 2015. Last year, the council signed off a £2m "extraordinary cost item" from its children's services budget to cover the potential fine and legal costs, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Speaking at a full council meeting on Wednesday, Tower Hamlets' chief executive Will Tuckley said he wanted to "again apologise to Alexia's mother, friends and family for their unbearable loss and express our profound regret that Alexia died in Mile End Park where she should have been safe". The Crown Prosecution Service previously ruled that while there had been a series of failings, it would not pursue manslaughter charges against the council over the child's death. An inquest in 2018 found "inappropriate wood" had been used in the swing's structure. The child's mother, Vida Kwotuah, previously said she was "truly disappointed to learn how chaotic and disorganised management was within the council, which no doubt led to the missed annual inspection in 2014". Health and Safety Executive inspector Stephron Baker Holmes said: "Those who provide play equipment should ensure it is safe for children. "The lack of a suitable playground inspection in the period leading up to this incident has resulted in tragic consequences." Related Internet Links Tower Hamlets Council