Newcastle’s lord mayor has issued an apology for the “unimaginable” tragedy that saw a six-year-old girl killed by a falling tree at a city school.
Ella Henderson was crushed by a decayed willow tree that collapsed while she was playing with friends in the playground of Gosforth Park First School in September 2020. On Tuesday, Newcastle City Council was fined £280,000 after pleading guilty to failings that led to Ella’s heartbreaking death.
The local authority was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive, with an investigation having found that the council had failed to fully identify the dangerous state of the tree or properly inform the school of its poor state. As the council met for the first time in 2023 on Wednesday night, lord mayor Karen Robinson opened the meeting by offering condolences to Ella’s family.
