Pavement trip payouts cost £82m

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Councils in England have paid out more than £82m in compensation over the past five years to people who have tripped on pavements, figures have revealed.

More than 90 authorities responded to a Freedom of Information request by the Liberal Democrats.

Leeds City Council had the highest compensation payment, which was £10.2m between 2004 and 2009.

It was followed by Birmingham at £7.5m and Liverpool at £5.5m. Stockport paid out £3.9m and Southampton paid £2.9m.

The average compensation payment across the 92 councils who responded to the survey was £833,269 over five years.

In 2008/09, people who had accidents on pavements or footpaths received £1.5m from Leeds City Council.

'Massive claims'

The average payout per claim by the authority over those 12 months was £11,426.

Leeds City Council said it had seen a "downward trend" in the number and value of compensation claims over the last four years.

COMPENSATION PAYOUTS Leeds City Council: £10,259,125Birmingham City Council: £7,551,840Liverpool City Council: £5,500,000Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council: £3,957,897Southampton City Council: £2,994,100Cambridgeshire County Council: £2,917,111Bradford Metropolitan District Council: £2,594,281Oldham Metropolitan District Council: £2,258,879London Borough of Barnet Council: £1,791,827Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council: £1,597,030

Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesman Norman Baker said: "With council and household budgets under more pressure than ever, the last thing the local taxpayer needs is to be paying massive compensation claims for injuries caused by dangerous pavements.

"Although some councils are investing heavily to improve their footways, others seem content to almost ignore pedestrians entirely."

A Leeds City Council spokesman said: "As the second largest metropolitan council in the country - with more than 750,000 residents and over 100,000 commuters coming into the city centre every day - we are inevitably going to have higher figures than most local authorities.

"Our ongoing investment, inspection and maintenance programme, coupled with an increase in our defence of claims in court, means we have seen a downward trend in the number and value of compensation claims over the last four years."

He added that they aimed to repair all dangerous defects within 24 hours.