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Councils are setting aside an average of £250,000 each for the legal cost of ill-repaired pavements, but are struggling to find funds for their repair, says Help the Aged.
As part a campaign to make pavements safer for older people Help the Aged questioned councils about funding for pavement maintenance. Some 66 councils responded to their ‘falling short’ investigation.
The survey found that despite being able to collectively find £16.3 million to cover the potential cost of personal injury fall claims many of the councils said that they faced funding shortfalls in their work to adequately maintain kerbs, pavements and public walkways.
Pamela Holmes, Head of Healthy Ageing at Help the Aged, said: “This investigation suggests that councils are caught in a vicious circle. On the one hand they are required to sit on large sums of money to cover legal fees and compensation and on the other they are cash-strapped when it comes to repairing pavements that may cause falls in the first place.
It is vital that councils invest more money in keeping public walkways safe, as falls are a leading cause of death for over 75s. We also understand that older people are less likely than other age groups to seek compensation when they fall, even though suffering a fall can shatter their physical and mental well-being.”
She continues, “Councils are responsible for maintaining and repairing millions of miles of public walkways, and this report shows that their finances are under pressure. However, we would like to see all councils responding quickly to fix pavements reported as dangerous and to investigate how they might better spend their reserve litigation funds.”
A Local Government Association spokesman said:
"Councils have a duty to balance the need to compensate those who have genuinely suffered injury from poorly maintained paving slabs and that of protecting the council taxpayer from bogus claims. Local authorities will take great care to make sure claims are genuine, but no-win, no-fee lawyers have helped inundate councils with claim cases that have caused a backlog to the system.”
Help the Aged is encouraging members of the public to send pavement reporting postcards to local authorities to highlight dangerous pavements in their areas on National Falls Awareness Day, 24 June 2008.
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