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No tripping up over cash claims

Adam Derbyshire
1/12/2004

TAMESIDE Council has paid out more than £5M in compensation claims for trips and slips on uneven pavements and roads.

The figure for the last five years is in sharp contrast to that of neighbouring Stockport Council which forked out almost £14M during the same period.

Council chiefs have vowed to prosecute anyone taking advantage of the 'compensation culture' and say they are steadily driving down payouts year on year.

Deputy leader Councillor Joe Kitchen said: "The main thing I want to emphasise is that we will contest every single claim and prosecute all those we find to be fraudulent.

"Since we introduced a full programme of inspections in 1999, together with the relevant maintenance, we have significantly improved our ability to defend highway/tripping claims.

"As an authority we now contest every claim and this has definitely had an impact on the figures.

"This in tandem with our rise in successfully repudiating claims and the tightening up of our risk management policy and practices has all contributed to our current strong position.

"The number of claims in 2002/3 was in excess of 1,100; so far this year that figure is 725, so you can see straight away that our policies are having an impact on the number of people claiming.

"In the initial two years following the introduction of the full inspection programme we were running a 60 per cent success rate against claims. In 2002/3 the figure had risen to 84 per cent and the latest estimates suggest we will surpass that figure again for 2003/4".