Croydon Town Hall will be the venue for the jury inquest into the seven deaths in the 2016 Sandilands tram crash. The inquest is expected to last 12 weeks, and will begin in September 2020.

The inquest opened in November 2016 and was immediately adjourned subject to a decision on whether or not to charge the driver with any criminal offences.

The Crown Prosecution Service and British Transport Police announced last month that Alfred Dorris, the driver, will not be charged with gross negligence manslaughter, nor would any other charges be brought relating to the tram crash.

Yesterday, short pre-inquest hearing was held at the Town Hall.

Sarah Ormrod-Walshe, the senior coroner for south London, formally resumed the inquests into the deaths of Dane Chinnery, Donald Collett, Robert Huxley, Philip Logan, Dorota Rynkiewicz, Philip Seary and Mark Smith who were all killed on November 9, 2016.

The pre-hearing heard that interested parties at the inquest will include representatives from families of those who died, Tram Operations London (the division of FirstGroup who operate the tram network), Transport for London, British Transport Police and a lawyer for Mr Dorris.

There is to be a further pre-hearing next month to consider the scope of the inquest. A date for this has yet to be set.

• Help to support Inside Croydon’s award-winning, news-breaking journalism, and get money-off offers, exclusive content and priority booking for special events. All for less than a fiver per month Click here to find out more

• Inside Croydon Events: click here for details of hundreds of events in and around Croydon

• Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
• Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and BBC London News
• Inside Croydon named Journalist of the Year at 2018 Anna Kennedy Online Autism Heroes Awards
• ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: For two consecutive years, 2017 and 2018, Inside Croydon has been the source for two award-winning nominations in Private Eye magazine’s annual celebration of civic cock-ups
  
• In 2018, Inside Croydon had 1.6million pages viewed by more than half a million unique visitors

• If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or what to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com