Two Guys Get £70k For Pothole Injuries

RESIDENTS of Scotland’s biggest city receive more than 50 pothole compensation payouts a month on average, two thirds of which are for personal injury.

In the biggest cases, two Glaswegians each received £35,000 compensation for injuries suffered as a result of potholes.

And of the £1.4m total compensation paid out over the past four years, just 32% was to cover damage to vehicles.

A total of £963,218 in personal injury compensation was paid to 294 accident victims, including individual sums of £27,000, £20,000, £16,900 and £15,000.

The information was revealed in a Freedom of Information request which Glasgow City Council initially refused to answer without the payment of a fee.

Critics of the council described the payouts as “incredible” and said it was “disgraceful” that officials appeared to have tried to hide the information.

The documents reveal that Glasgow council received an astonishing 33,340 complaints about potholes over the four years, an average of almost 23 a day.

They agreed to pay compensation in 2,504 of the cases – 7.5% – giving an average between 2012 and 2015 of 52 a month.

The highest claim for vehicle damage paid out was £2,447 and the lowest just £12. The lowest claim for personal injury was £100.

The FoI request was made to all Scottish councils but Glasgow was the only major authority to try to demand a fee – of £40 – for the information.

A spokesman for Taxpayer Scotland said: “It’s disgraceful that the Council tried to hide this information; you have to suspect that they are either unwilling to admit to the extent of the problem, or how to deal with it.”

He added: “Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying out hard-earned cash on compensation claims; we expect to pay for workers with shovels and tarmacadam.

“It appears that a schedule that dealt with more than two holes daily would sort out the problem; and that should be the focus of a small dedicated specialist management team and a publicly declared effort.
“Glasgow needs to put its risk management experts to work. They should come clean, localise the solution to local community depots, and avoid having meetings about plans, just get it done.”

Director of Policy and Research at the Institute of Advanced Motorists, Neil Greig said: “What a waste of valuable money that could have been spent on improving Glasgow’s roads.

“By allowing its roads to deteriorate to such an extent Glasgow council has ended up paying out even more and it still has to fix the potholes on the network.

“It is only by ring fencing long term funds for road maintenance that the problem can be solved.

“Engineers know what they have to do they just need long term commitment so they can plan properly.”

Scottish Conservative local government spokesman Cameron Buchanan said: “This is quite an incredible amount of compensation being paid out by Glasgow City Council because of potholes and the fact the local authority initially refused to provide the statistics shows they have something to hide.

“I’m sure many hard-working Scots will be appalled that their cash is being continually spent on so many claims and the council is trying to cover it up.

“With local authorities facing huge pressures to become more efficient, the SNP Government and local authorities should be working together to repair our roads properly and fix potholes rather than throwing money from the public purse down the drain.”

A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “The council has invested £75m over the last six years repairing the city’s roads network and this has significantly reduced the number of claims received and the number of claims which are successful.

“The positive trend in the reduction of weekly potholes reported by the public over the last three years is reflected in the number of claims received and the number of pay outs over this period.”

The original FoI request revealed that Renfrewshire Council had paid out £12,665 to the owner of a damaged vehicle.

 

 

 

 

 

By Joe Stenson deadline

Your Tax Cash Spent On EU Bridges Whilst Our Roads Go Down The Pan.

MORE taxpayers' cash has been lavished on four EU bridge-building projects than will be spent on mending potholes on Britain's entire road network over the next five years, figures revealed last night.

Research released by anti-Brussels campaigners showed that a massive £264million was spent from EU funds on constructing new bridges in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland.

Yet the figure compared to £250million earmarked for the UK Government's "Porthole Action Fund" from 2016 to 2021.

The analysis was published in a new leaflet by Vote Leave, a pressure group set up to campaign for Britain to quit the EU in the forthcoming in-or-out referendum.

It was drafted to highlight the huge gap in the amount of taxpayers cash spent on repairing the country's roads compared to that handed over the Brussels.

Britain's annual contribution of £350million a week was 382 times bigger than the £50million-a-year Porthole Action Fund set up by Chancellor George Osborne, the research showed.

And much of the UK's payments to Brussels were spent on major infrastructure projects including transport networks.

The leaflet says: "Much of the UK's contributions to the EU are spent on EU structural funds. "

In 2015, the EU spent £48.7 billion (60.4 billion euros) on 'economic, social and territorial cohesion'.

"Despite being one of the largest contributors to the EU budget, many other wealthy EU member states receive more in structural funds than the UK - including Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and France.

"As a percentage of gross national income, only Denmark and the Netherlands received less than the UK."

Research by Vote Leave showed that a total of £264million was spent by Brussels on four vast road bridges in EU countries.

EU spending included £68million on the Harilaos Trikoupis bridge across the Gulf of Corinth in Greece, £52million the Vidin-Calafat bridge linking Romania and Bulgaria over the Danube, and a total of £126million on the Torun and Kamien bridges over waterways in Poland.

Robert Oxley, a spokesman for Vote Leave, said: "The UK sends £350million a week to Brussels, money we could better spend on our priorities like fixing our roads.

"Taxpayers' money should go on filling in potholes in Britain, rather than being squandered on foreign bridges to nowhere." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

source By MACER HALL The Express 

Mapping Potholes From Space! Really

They are rarely hard to spot but now council chiefs want to send ‘micro-satellites’ into space to look for... potholes.

Worcestershire County Council leaders have held talks with scientists about the plans.

Officials are also in talks with a specialist U.S manufacturer to create the micro-satellites.

The satellites would also be used to spot traffic jams and solve congestion problems.

They want to use them to monitor motorist behaviour in a bid to cut tailbacks in Worcester.

But the council has been ridiculed after saying the satellites will also be used to spot potholes.

They believe monitoring roads from space will alert highways chiefs to potentially car-damaging erosion.

The devices, known as CubeSats, will record live details on congestion data while in orbit.

Council leaders hope the technology will help them to know exactly where jams hit and when.

John Hobbs, the council’s director for business, environment and community, confirmed the plans.

He said: “The use of technology to improve efficiency and customer service is something which Worcestershire Highways is keen to progress.

“Areas of particular focus include how we inspect the highway for defects such as potholes, traffic modelling and at the leading edge, the customer experience - particularly in relation to congestion.”

CubeSats cost around £26,000 to launch into space but maintenance costs can be double that figure.

Council leaders are now searching for a “technology partner” to help the project progress.

But the scheme has been slammed by local residents feeling the brunt of £30m council cutbacks.

James Wilson, 30, from Claines, Worcs, said: “Spending taxpayers’ money on satellites to look for potholes sounds almost amusing.

“It’s a barmy idea. Surely paying a council officer to walk or drive along the main routes will be sufficient.

“Some of the potholes are so big around here they could probably be seen from space.

“I hope this idea gets scrapped soon. It just shows how out of touch the council are.”

Graham Fletcher, an IT manager, added: “When I heard about this plan my first reaction was the council must be space cadets.”

Former Worcester mayor and Labour councillor Pat Agar said: “We do need to be much more creative.

“In the future we can expect a lot more growth and a lot more congestion. But I fear solutions are some way off.”

Jonathan Isaby, from the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the council needed to prove the new technology brings down costs elsewhere.”

He added: “It’s important to embrace new ideas that can help improve efficiency, but it’s equally important to only do so when it works.”

 

Editors comments...............

Nothing new in this announcement, Street Repairs has been mapping potholes for years by using Google Street View which is linked to Google earth so in essence mapping from space..... But this is how they want to waste your hard earned council tax. Get a grip and embrace technology that works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

source mirror MARTIN FRICKER

Greater Manchester City Council Pays Out £12million in Claims Including Potholes

Greater Manchester town halls paid out more than £12m in compensation in two years, with council chiefs in Manchester shelling out more than £5m - the second highest amount in the COUNTRY.

A Freedom of Information request by the Tax Payers’ Alliance reveals that councils in the region were forced to stump up £7.5m in 2013/14 and £4.7m in 2014/15 after claims by residents, staff, and businesses.

But the true figure is almost certainly higher, with two Greater Manchester authorities not included in the data.

Bolton and Salford councils refused to provide figures.

The other eight town halls paid out £12.2m over the two years. Manchester alone was forced to pay £5.1m through 807 claims.

Only Lambeth in London paid out more - £5.2m.

Cash was paid out for incidents including people tripping on pavements and roads; damage to cars driving over potholes; staff injuring themselves at work; industrial illness; and damage to housing.

In Manchester there were 379 claims resulting in a payout in 2013/14 and 428 in 2014/15.

Some 314 were for trip claims in the city, with £1.3m paid out.

Personal injury claims accounted for 230 of the sums paid out - totalling £2m.

Some 99 payouts were to staff where the council was liable for workplace injury - totalling £1.3m.

And 144, amounting to almost £300,000 were for ‘damage claims’ - including to housing.

In 2013/14, the council paid out £300,000 to one person for a personal injury claim. Some £295,000 was paid to a member of staff for an incident where the town hall was liable.

Another personal injury claim cost the council £100,000.

The following year, employers’ liability cost the town hall £150,000 in one case - and £147,000 in another.

A personal injury claim cost the council £70,000 in 2014/15.

The council would not shed any light on the circumstances surrounding specific claims.

Councillor John Flanagan, Manchester’s executive member for finance and human resources, said: “In common with all councils, we receive a wide range of compensation claims relating to personal injury, workplace accidents and industrial illness.

“These range from slips and trips to historical claims dating from previous decades, notably those involving asbestos-related illnesses.

“We take all claims very seriously and seek to deal with them efficiently and fairly. We also have a duty to protect taxpayers’ money and rigorously investigate all claims we suspect may be unreasonable or fraudulent.

“This can result in a range of actions, including criminal prosecution. We continue to regularly survey footpaths and roads, in order to minimise the amount of potential claims we receive.

“As Manchester is the largest local authority in Greater Manchester, with higher employee and resident numbers than other areas and the most visited centre, it stands to reason that the amount of cases we deal with will generally be higher than in other parts of the region.”

Chief executive of the Tax Payers’ Alliance, Jonathan Isaby, said: “The compensation culture is costing taxpayers dear and every pound spent on settlements or higher insurance premiums is a pound that isn’t spent on essential services such as road maintenance or social care.

“Some of the payments made by councils will be entirely justified, as the most serious accidents can change lives.

“But in many cases, local authorities and their staff will be failing to live up to the standards required of them by law or paying out on frivolous claims too easily.

“Councils must do everything they can to ensure their mistakes and negligence don’t result in such large bills for hard-pressed taxpayers - and take appropriate action against staff whose actions result in costly claims. “We must also root out those who are playing the system with spurious demands for taxpayers’ cash.”

To report a pothole or other street defect in real time click here for action 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

source MEN TODD FITZGERALD

£100 Million Paid Out In Pothole Claims

New research shows councils in Britain paid out thousands of pounds because of potholes, accidents and other workplace related grievances between 2013 and 2015