I read in directgov.uk "Your council is usually responsible for making sure= pavements are free from trip hazards and other defects to ensure public sa= fety. This includes removing weeds, replacing broken or stolen slabs, suppl= ying grit in icy conditions, and keeping pavements clear of snow."
can anyone help me please with:
- what defines a "trip hazard" in a pavement?
- and would a cracked (but still in place) slab be "broken"?
The pavements on my street are atrocious and I'm girding my loins for a let= ter/petition to the council (Wandsworth). Any advice gratefully received!
Good luck. Wandsworth were, of course, once famous for their pavements when the Tory council first took over. Then ran out of money. My street has one side with the 'new' pavement, the other old.
I've often wondered why they don't use some form of reinforced concrete slabs - at least they wouldn't crack so often.
Cracks, though, are generally cometic. If there is heave or whatever, you should be able to get something done, as they don't want to be sued by someone tripping up.
As a "local crank" I would say that firstly a cracked paving slab is not per-se "broken" - it's just a number of smaller odd shaped slabs ;-)..
As to getting it fixed, I would do the following...
Get a photo of the slabs causing problems and then a close-up photo where you have some common object (like a bic biro) against the "step" between slabs so that someone looking at the picture has a frame of reference.
Write or e-mail politely to whatever department fixes slabs. If the slab also rocks, make sure you point this out. Make sure that you request an acknowledgement letter or e-mail and if they don't provide one within their own published timeframes, write again and Cc in the Council's chief executive as well as the leader of the Council.
Cc in your ward councillors
Cc in the local opposition parties - if they have councillors, Cc the one amongst them who appears in the local press the most (i.e. is most vociferous).
If there is a particular issue, for example a wheelchair user or some elderly walkers on your street, talk to them and ask their opinion and if they would co-sign your letter
Now don't hold your breath! Monitor the situation and update them every time there is a significant change (probably for the worse).
If you happen to establish a relationship with the council officer in charge of such things, make sure you e-mail or write and say thanks if the work is done as it never hurts to grease the wheel a little.
pavements are free from trip hazards and other defects to ensure public safety. This includes removing weeds, replacing broken or stolen slabs, supplying grit in icy conditions, and keeping pavements clear of snow."
letter/petition to the council (Wandsworth). Any advice gratefully received!
Have you reported it to the council?
Take a photo of it with something to show the scale - a coin or ruler. Email it council. See what their response is. After a couple of weeks then get in touch with the councillor and see what they can do.
There's a limit on what's acceptable - not sure if people are supposed to pick their feet up and avoid half inch[1] differences ...
But if it's a huge difference in height that will catch people out then they should act quickly. If only to avoid the nowinnofee mobs.
If you've tripped on it, then tell them. This might speed things up. Once they have been informed about it then the liability is on them to get it sorted.
There's a website
formatting link
makes it easy to report this sort of stuff and they chase it up. My council emailed me and asked nicely if I'd just email them directly about issues rather than going via this rather public record.
[1] There will be a standard somewhere about what is urgent and what is ok.
Kent County Council has a website for reporting potholes (and boy, they need it). IME it's slow to use but the holes were filled in. Do other Highways Authorities have sites for the same purpose? If not why not? And can one agitate to get them to set one up?
I haven't come across that one, but I have used fixmystreet.com and it seems to work quite nicely, and actual holes in local roads have been fixed fairly promptly. Trying to report a railway defect (a PA system that was so distorted as to be useless) had no effect.
Making a public report has two advantages: firstly everyone can see which councils respond promptly and effectively and which do not, and second if you actually suffer damage from a pothole or other defect that you find has already been reported but not fixed, then you have a much better chance of getting compensation. One can see why a council might not want you to go the public route.
On Thursday, September 13, 2012 11:03:49 AM UTC+1, mogga wrote: SNIP
That is precisely the sort of thing wot would belp if I knew where to find = the local authority department of pavementology standards doc. Mr Google th= rows up an American academic papaer that suggests over 10mm is a material (= in legal parlance, not, er made of stuff) hazard.
Thanks to other posters. It think a photographic survey with a couple of o= bjects for visual scale (eg one 10mm high and one 20mm) would be splendid, = and I will have a go this weekend.
A 50 pence piece on edge is traditional: it is both a known size and, IIRC, it is the minimum difference in levels needed for a claim for compensation for a trip to stand a good chance of success.
local authority department of pavementology standards doc. Mr Google throws up an American academic papaer that suggests over 10mm is a material (in legal parlance, not, er made of stuff) hazard.
objects for visual scale (eg one 10mm high and one 20mm) would be splendid, and I will have a go this weekend.
Your local pavementology man at the council is likely to have access to this but not always be keen to share. More than 1 Slips, trips or accidents in public places - Personal Injury Solicitors in ... affinitylaw.co.uk/public-and-occupiers-liability/Slipping / tripping accident on a road or pavement;; Slipping / tripping or being hit by items ... system of maintenance, inspection and repair of roads and pavements. ... If a defect is more than 1 inch the claim is likely to succeed unless the Local ... The Council are also obliged to follow a Winter Programme for the removal of ...
The cost of setting up a site will mean less cash for doing the repairs... Just report them - via the public site perhaps above or via email and cc. councillors in on them.
Indeed. I am happy to report directly to the council when they get fixed quickly - we did have a pot hole man who goes round and does the small ones. Suspect not enough people report them though.
The point of these things is that if you have reported a safety hazard, and they have done nothing, they are liable (IANAL) and since these are published anyone injured can see that they have been reported.
Mind, I reported some subsiding bridge approaches near me; the response was to put up uneven road signs...
I reported a minor road sign error near here....a sign saying that there was a public phone in the upcoming car park (a sort of layby, but round off the next roundabout). There hadn't been a phone box there for three years and I'd seen people searching for it...
They fixed it. The big blue sign had a white P, and an outline of a telephone receiver; you've seen the sort of thing.
They painted over the outline of the telephone receiver - with white paint. From a distance it looks like...well, a telephone receiver.
I'm not sure the 50p test was around pre-1997. In any event, it's only a rule of thumb[1]. In principle a council could be found liable to pay compensation on the grounds that it had not done all that was reasonably required to make sure the pavement was not dangerous no matter how small the difference in height. But the courts have commented on various cases which lead to (I think) to 1 inch/25mm as being an approximate guide for, as I said, a *good* chance of getting compensation. But here at least the council try to fix anything at 20mm or above to be safe.
[1] but I don't suggest photographs of thumbs though as evidence :)
I have a neighbour who is elderly, disabled and very unsteady on her feet. When they had a patio put down, the company doing it had to come back and redo the joints - they had mortared them and used half round joints and that was enough for her to catch her toe and fall. She is totally unable to use the pavements on our road!
Find someone who has been hurt by a fall on the footway first. They tend to take notice if they might need to make apay out I find. Otherwise the best you seem to get around hear is what the locals call self healing paint, ie a person in a hi vis jacket turns up with variously coloured paints and a measuring stick and a map. H usually then marks the trip hazards with the colour of the pain dedicated to the service needed, ie blue for water, green for cable and yellow for gas or possibly red for council. He then wanders off and tells the relavent departments of their problems and nothing else happens.
do motorways? Thinking of the blooming great dip in lane 1 of the M6 Northbound under or very close to the overbridge south of J37(*) exit slip road.
Fairly sure it's J37 but it doesn't look quite right on Streetview (over bridge to far from exit slip) but then I'm normally going along there in the dark. Might be J36.
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