KIRKLEES Council has paid out nearlyŠ£2.3m in compensation claims in the last three years.
The figures obtained via a Freedom ofŠ Information request, further revealed more thanŠ two-thirds of claims were for damage to propertyŠ with the remainder for personal injury. A total of 3,601 claims were made during theŠ three-year period. Of those, 926 were successfully paid totallingŠ £2,299,802.
Magdale saw the issue: “People need to take responsibility for themselves. For goodness sake, people need to open their eyes on uneven ground and watch where they are going.
“I do not know who is more foolish: We taxpayers for allowing councils to pay out these claims or the ‘injured’ parties for not looking where they are going.”
HuddersFax_resident saw a downside to that: “Unfortunately Magdale with the exception of genuine claims, people are taking responsibility for themselves but in the opposite way to which you’re suggesting – with our ‘where there’s a blame there’s a claim’ culture some people are now seeing claims against councils and insurance companies as a way of getting ‘free’ money.
“As such these people know exactly where they’re going and know exactly how much to injure themselves.
“Like motor insurance companies, the council need to invest in deliberate accident and fraudulent claims investigation (which is what the wife does for a motor insurance company).”
RichardP saw some nugget of truth in the figures: “I use a mobility scooter and there are so many pavements that don’t have a ‘drop’ to enable you to cross the road.
“Without this a scooter or a baby buggy could turn over as trying to get down off the pavement is dangerous.”
Markmyword49 thinks the council are getting it right: “It looks to me like Kirklees are actually doing a good job on reducing compensation payouts.
“With the best will in the world they can only go on the advice of the insurance adjusters and their legal advisers.”
“It’s too easy just to look at the headline figure and be shocked without thinking through the reasons for them.”