MILLIONS of pounds are being paid to people who have tripped and injured themselves on pavements in Greater Manchester.

Compensation claims cost Manchester council tax payers £5 million in just eight years.

And in the last year alone Salford council has had to pay out £1.7m in so-called `trip-and-slip' claims.

Graham Stringer, MP for Manchester Blackley, attacked `a growing compensation culture'.

He said: "I have absolutely no doubt that Manchester, like any major city, faces a number of claims that are simply fraudulent. Manchester is not unique in facing these problems.

"It is part of a growing compensation culture. There is something offensive about the way some companies tout for business."

Other councils have seen reductions in recent times.

Rochdale spent £1.4m on slip-and-trip compensation in 2003/04, but only £207,866 in 2006/07 due to a zero tolerance policy on quick settlements.

Since January 2000, Manchester council has made 1,473 payouts for such claims, at an average of £3,290 apiece.

Documents seen by the M.E.N. show one resident who fractured an ankle in a fall on Cotefield Road, Benchill, Wythenshawe, in 2002 claimed £30,000 when the case was settled four years later.

Payment

That is nearly three times as much as the standard government compensation payment of £11,000 to the husband or wife of someone killed as the result of a violent crime.

Other bumper payouts include:

£23,000 for a trip-and-slip incident in Clee Avenue, Longsight, in 2005, that resulted in a fractured arm,

£20,125 for a `non-fracture' leg injury in Clayton in 2001,

£19,550 for a similar ankle injury sustained in Heaton Park in 2002 and settled earlier this year.

The information is contained in a sheet listing all public liability personal injury claims dealt with by the town hall's legal department since 2000.

The vast majority are trip-and-slip claims - where someone has sustained an injury they say is the result of the council failing to maintain its roads and pavements. Recipients can get a lump sum and money to cover loss of earnings.

Of these, 1,473 have resulted in payouts - either negotiated, or imposed by the courts - while 9,156 have not been paid.

The trip-slip payouts help make up a total compensation bill of £12.3m for Manchester council since 2000.

There were several claims for accidents in the workplace, incling a member of staff at a council depot in Bessemer Street, Gorton, who was hurt lifting an object in 2003 and received £13,900 for leg injuries.

More than £250,000 was paid out for industrial injuries, including £120,000 for a single case which involved respiratory problems.

A Manchester council spokeswoman said: "We take a robust approach to dealing with compensation claims."

The rest of the £12.3m compensation bill includes £2.18m paid out in relation to sexual and physical abuse at children's homes. The claims - most dating back to the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s - were brought by claimants who had spent time at Rosehill, Northenden, and Broome House, Didsbury.

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