Liberal Democrats at County Hall have unearthed information that shows that Herts County Council has had to pay out over a million pounds in injury and compensation claims in just two and half years due to highways defects.
The information obtained by Liberal Democrat opposition Leader Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst (Central Watford and Oxhey) shows that until 31 August this year there were pay outs on 1228 injury claims relating to accidents and falls, costing the council £718,866. There are further claims still to be settled so the figure is likely to increase. The rest, some £296,060, relate to non-injury claims, mainly damage to wheels and tyres.
Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst said: “This level of claims being paid is a worry for two reasons: clearly hundreds of Herts residents are being injured owing to highways defects and bad paving, and it’s costing the Council a lot of money that should be spent on fixing those defects before people get injured.
“Yet again it shows that Herts is just not getting it right when it comes to road and footway repairs. This is on top of the hundreds of thousands it has fined its main highways contractor, Ringway and shows that it’s time for a total rethink about how it maintains our roads and footways.
”For too long the Conservative administration has been complacent over this at County Hall. They need to get out into the real world.”