Barrow council's Gillian Beckingham has been charged with seven counts of manslaughter over the 2002 Legionnaires' disease outbreak at the council-run Forum 28 arts centre – with the council also served with summonses.
The design services manager will appear before magistrates on 24 February.
As well as the fatalities, some 170 people contracted the disease which was traced to the arts centre's 30-year-old air conditioning system.
Heating and ventilating engineers concerned by this precident may wish to view Extra Issue 31 for details of a budget particle counter being developed by Worcestershire-based Facility Monitoring Systems to counter Legionniares' disease.