Millions spent on street trip-ups

by Matt Precey
BBC East

Payouts for pavement trip-ups were made across the East.

Councils across the east of England have spent millions of pounds compensating people who have been injured by tripping up on pavements.

Excluding legal fees, £6m has been paid out by councils since 2001, the BBC revealed after it obtained the costs in Freedom of Information Act requests.

Claims included £43,000 for a leg injury and a payout after someone fell and dented dog food tins.

The region's councils said the majority of claims against them were rejected.

Essex County Council says it successfully defends or rejects around 82% of claims against it.

On average, the other local authorities in the East see off between three-quarters and two-thirds of the claims made against them.

Compensation payouts 2001-2007 Bedfordshire County Council: £158,339 Cambridge City Council: £86,284 Cambridgeshire County Council: £640,862 Essex County Council: £739,946 Hertfordshire County Council: £828,233 Ipswich Borough Council: £86,275 Luton Borough Council: £244,525 Milton Keynes Borough Council: £735,903 Norfolk County Council: £732,211 Northampton Borough Council: £230,056 Peterborough City Council: £272,356 Southend Borough Council: £168,892 Stevenage Borough Council: £32,981 Suffolk County Council: £821,042

In January, Essex County Council had £4.75m in outstanding compensation claims for trips on pavements and footpaths.

Claims the county council had paid out on included £3.28 to someone who broke some glass tumblers and dented dog food tins after tripping on a pavement in Billericay High Street and £43,000 to someone who hurt their leg after tripping on an uneven paving slab.

Hertfordshire County Council made compensation payments of £828,233, Norfolk County Council £732,211, Suffolk County Council £821,042 and Cambridgeshire County Council £640,862 - all excluding legal costs.

Figures for Northamptonshire County Council show it paid out £693,754, including legal fees between 2003 and 2007.

In December 2005, Northamptonshire County Council paid out £8,000 to Margaret Bell who tripped on a hole in a path near were she worked in Corby.

She broke both her wrists and was unable to work for months.

Mrs Bell, from Thrapston, Northants, told the BBC: "I was talking to the person I was with and the next thing I knew I just went down on the ground - I couldn't get up."

Taxpayers' cheques

No council could give a definitive answer as to why it faced such a large number of claims.

Norman Hume, of Essex County Council, said: "It's fair to say there's an increasing compensation culture at play."

Mr Hume added the council had been working towards making improvements to curb injury figures and would "spend a record amount this year in Essex, something close to £75m on maintenance of our roads and footways".

Blair Gibbs, of pressure group Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "It's an enormous amount of money - there's an issue about what councils are paying out and whether they have robust enough procedures to check on the authenticity of claims.

"There needs to be clearer guidelines from central government on what are legitimate claims because ultimately all the cheques are signed by the taxpayer."