A COUNCIL and an arts promotions company have admitted breaches of health and safety regulations following a tragedy in which two people died when an inflatable artwork flipped over.

Chester-le-Street District Council today pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety At Work Act arising out of the Dreamspace tragedy at Riverside Park, in Chester-le-Street, County Durham.

Liverpool-based promotions company Brouhaha International Limited also pleaded guilty to a breach of the same Act.

The council's director of development services, Tony Galloway, 48, of East Pethrow Farm, Wigglesworth, Bishop Auckland, pleaded not guilty to breaching Section 31 of the Act. The judge, Mrs Justice Cox, ordered that the charge lie on file and Mr Galloway will not now face trial.

Artist Maurice Agis, 76, who designed the multi-coloured Dreamspace sculpture, today appeared before Newcastle Crown Court to deny two counts of manslaughter and is to face trial by jury on January 26.

Mr Agis, of Kirton Gardens, Bethnal Green, East London, also denied a charge brought under Section 32 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974.

In July 2006, Claire Furmedge, a 38-year-old mother-of-two, from Chester-le-Street and Elizabeth Collings, a 68-year-old grandmother from Seaham, died in the tragedy, which took place as the plastic inflatable was in the North-East as part of an Arts Council-funded national tour.

More than a dozen other visitors were injured, including three-year-old Rosie Wright, from Langley Park.

Inflated by large fans, the panelled 50m x 50m PVC structure was big enough for people to enter and experience the changing colours and sounds inside.

However, the work of art slipped its moorings and tipped over, before becoming snagged on a CCTC camera pole close to the River Wear.

Brouhaha and the Chester-le-Street Council will be sentenced at the conclusion of Mr Agis' trial, which is expected to last around four weeks.