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Chaos as Town Hall to host July 7 hearings
Council prepares for month-long tour of borough
THE main Town Hall building is to become a makeshift court for the inquests probing the deaths of the victims of the 7/7 bombings, the New Journal has learned.
Organisers are understood to be worried that St Pancras Coroner’s Court in Camley Street, Somers Town, the normal venue for inquests investigating deaths in Camden and other areas of north London, is too small for such a large task.
A former chapel, the courthouse’s creaking public benches can quickly become full during high-profile hearings. Some attendees complain of poor acoustics despite the microphone system in place.
Officially, coroner’s officials are not discussing publicly whether the venue will be switched but well-placed sources have told the New Journal that the technicalities of how the inquests could be staged have already been discussed at a senior level.
The council chambers in Judd Street have emerged as the best possible venue and the only one able to cope with the expected volume of witnesses, police officers, lawyers and journalists that will want to attend the hearings.
The proceedings are likely to be held throughout September, possibly one at a time or concurrently if the evidence is similar in each case, and will mean that regular council business such as licensing and planning meetings will have to be heard elsewhere. Alternative venues for council business are being scouted but could include the Camden Centre ballroom near the main building or community halls on council estates.
One source said: “Everything will have to move for a month. The Town Hall will be used as the court for the inquests”
St Pancras Coroner Dr Andrew Reid is charged with examining the deaths of victims killed in the bomb blasts in an underground tunnel at Russell Square and on a bus in Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury
In total, 52 men and women died in four separate attacks in London on July 7, 2005.
They include printer Ciaran Cassidy, 22, who went to La Swap College in Highgate Road, and Elizabeth Dalpyn, 25, a radiographer at University College Hospital.
Camden Council, which manages the coroner’s court, said: “We’re not confirming arrangements for the inquests until a date is set.”
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