COMPENSATION payments for ‘trip and slip’ claims cost Greater Manchester taxpayers more than £7.4m last year.
Oldham, Salford and Stockport councils all paid out more than £1m after people claimed damages for injuries suffered after they tripped on potholes and pavements. Salford spent £1.78m on compensation – the equivalent of a council tax increase of nearly 2 per cent.
The M.E.N can also reveal town halls are racking up huge legal bills defending themselves in disputed claims.
One on-going claim against Stockport has dragged on since 2004 and has so far cost taxpayers £160,000. In 2003 Trafford council spent £130,000 fighting a court case involving a woman who tripped on a pavement in Urmston. She was awarded £56,916. That year Salford also paid out £33,000 to a man who fell down a pothole.
The largest individual claim last year was paid out by Bolton council, who wrote a cheque for £66,000 to a woman who injured herself falling over a sunken grid.
Matthew Elliott, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “These compensation payouts are sky high, and will be of great concern to taxpayers.” But personal injury lawyer Michael Hardacre, of legal firm Pannone, said it was wrong to blame ‘compensation culture’ for the payouts. He said: “Judges are very good at seeing through fraudulent or spurious claims. The reality is these payouts are to people who have had serious injuries which they have taken a long time to recover from.”
A number of councils have been cracking down on quick pay-outs in recent years after a surge in claims. They have also increased the amount they are spending on road repairs. Salford council said their compensation bill last year was a drastic reduction from the nearly £4m paid out in 2005. Eight formerly unemployed residents are starting new jobs helping to repair potholes. A Stockport council spokesman said: “We have seen footway conditions improved across the borough to address these claims.”
A 35-year-old mum-of-three from Blackley, suing Manchester city council over a broken pavement, has been in plaster for three months with a fractured arm. She said: “I’m on my own with a mortgage so it was incredibly hard when I couldn’t work. I missed two mortgage payments and had to cancel our first holiday in four years.”
Council totals: Salford £1.78m; Stockport £1.58m; Oldham £1.438m; Trafford £894,009; Bolton £804,124; Manchester £470,781.94; Wigan £426,000; Tameside £221,055; Rochdale £85,431; Bury £78,578.
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tiggerluc, somewhere in shaw (25/11/2009 at 09:39)
Blue Dude, Manchester. (25/11/2009 at 10:56)
Well done Hackney, irrespective of its politics, someone is using their noodle to defend nonsense claims.
Do the maths guys, pay for a lawyer of Mr Loophole variety, entice a poacher turnded gamekeeper lawyer to work for the councils and I bet 8 out of 10 claims disappear......A lot more law firms are going to fall over in the next few months as their Private Indemnity insurance as doubled so I'm sure 1 or 2 will go an work as privately employed lawyer for the council.
Look at Stockport alone paying out £1.5m if they cut than in half and paid a lawyer £150k pa to do that then they would be £600k better off or in real terms 20 school teachers salaries.
Just a thought, compensation where its due is a right. The frivolous few can do one as far as I'm concerned...
reppick, salford (25/11/2009 at 11:07)
the monkey, bolton (25/11/2009 at 11:11)
FrostySnowman (25/11/2009 at 11:21)
Mad Welsh Scotsman, Cadishead (25/11/2009 at 13:26)
I wouldn't mind betting that most of those who claimed don't actually pay full council tax anyway and are also not paying any income tax either.
Steve Middleton, Salford (25/11/2009 at 17:38)
Clearly, money must be set aside from the next budget to tackle the horrendous state of our roads & footpaths, if not for the safety of Salfordians, then at least to reduce the wasteful costs being spent to settle these claims.
I dream of a Salford where the roads and pavements are safe to traverse - and council tax isn't over £1,000 for a band A property. I guess it will remain a dream under the current, Labour, leadership.
BillyJ (25/11/2009 at 18:21)
My partner was made redundant as the authority thought that it would be cheeper to allow the public to report any potholes and uneven pavements and pay out on any claims that would arise. It was a decision that was ratified by the councilors at the time to reduce costs. Now they are reaping expense of the short sighted cost cutting measures. Typical of Salford penny pinching ways.
Tomo81, Droylsden (26/11/2009 at 01:05)
To be fair to Stockport and Trafford they both had big cases on so it's a little harsh to criticise them but I think Manchester have done really well given the amount of people who live there. Say they paid out £2k on average in damages that would only be 235 cases.
Public School Pimms Lout (26/11/2009 at 08:14)
If you have an accident and its some one else fault, then you have the law courts, solicitors and an entire legal system already at your disposal. These companies just chase profits, employ sales staff and have no interest in the law or justice and also bleed the system dry!
Further to this, when these compensation winners do get their award from the council, they are not taking money from them, but money from the hard working locals who prop up the councils. The councils don’t pay a penny out of their money and they just recoup it back by increases in service costs they pass on to us!
Steve Middleton, Salford (26/11/2009 at 13:11)
While I don't have enough information to dispute whether the people who live in the boroughs are the majority of claimants, how shortsighted of Tomo81 to claim that as Salford Council has "paid the most out you have to ask questions about the people who live there!" Utter rubbish!
More likely is that larger councils such as Manchester City Council had far *MORE* claims than Salford, but it just so happens that Manchester has either a better council or a thorough claims investigation department. Maybe even a better lawyer! Probably all 3.
Salford City Council needs to get it's act together and do what the majority of the other Greater Manchester councils are doing to get frivolous claims dismissed - only paying out on those where there is a serious & real claim.
They should also be *FIXING* the roads and footpaths so that serious & real claims are reduced.
I'm sure if Manchester, Bury, Rochdale or Tameside was run by the incompetent Labour councillors Salford has to put up with, then their claims would be in the millions too.
Jay B, oldham (26/11/2009 at 14:16)
i wish they where more effective with this than with their traffic calming and bus lanes programmes. the pop them up everywhere and neglect the more important things like the roads themselves.
people are injured and even killed because of this which is basically corporate negligence. if it where a private company they would be getting much worse than these little compensation claims.
martyn king (29/11/2009 at 10:44)