Council urged workmen to speed up because of elections five days before lamppost fell and killed baby I am very relieved to hear that Virgin is now on site. Can you ensure that our contractor is poised to start work again as soon as they are clear? On the same day Kelvin Elmore, a workman at the site, cut through a piece of steel attached to a block of concrete 18in from the lamppost, not knowing that it was part of its base. Five days later, on Feb 23 2010, the post fell on Tommy, who was being cared for by his nanny. He died in hospital two days later, the day before his first birthday. Owain Thomas, representing the Hollis family, asked Amin Sinani, a consultant for Aecom on the project, whether there had been pressure from the local authority to get the work done. He said: "The site had been excavated for a long time. In that sense, yes, there was some sort of pressure to deliver the work on time. Asked whether this had come from the local authority, Mr Sinani said: "Yes." Mr Thomas asked: "They were expecting you to exert pressure on Virgin Media to get on with it?" Mr Sinani agreed but added: "We had no power to obstruct works that were taking place. We were there merely to act as a liaison for the client and to report what was the progress on the site. When pressed, he admitted he had expressed a "preference" to the firm that the cables be sunk lower rather than rerouted, agreeing that it was because he wanted to avoid the delay. Mr Thomas asked: "Was any thought given to how the excavation might affect the surrounding structures?" Mr Sinani replied: "No." Tommy's mother Kate, 40, a senior legal counsel at finance firm GE Capital, and her husband Christopher, 42, a pilot, are attending the inquest and have said they want "answers." The couple, who have an eight-month-old son called Jack, have set up a charity in Tommy's memory to raise money for a number of children's causes.