UK Council Worker Wins £4,000 Compensation for Slipping on a BANANA

UK Councils are forking out millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money in compensation – including to their own staff, a probe has revealed.

 One city hall worker won £4,000 after slipping on a banana skin while another who burned their hand on a fish pie was paid £3,000.

Robert Oxley of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “Britain’s barmy compensation culture is costing taxpayers a fortune. Councils should fight cynical and frivolous cases. It’s absurd taxpayers are footing such a huge bill for minor trips and falls.”
Local authorities have faced a landslide of claims since solicitors began to work on a no-win-no-fee basis in the late 90s.
The compensation bill for the Greater Manchester area, where the person who slipped on the banana and the person who burned their hand worked, was £1.2million in 2012 and 2013.
More than £500,000 of that was paid out by Salford City Council in 2012. Councils in South Wales paid out £168,000 while claims cost Sefton Council and Wirral Borough Council £84,000.
Kirklees Council forked out £138,000 in 2012 and 2013, Newcastle and South Tyneside councils spent £145,000 and Dudley Council paid out more than £330,000.
A Liverpool resident got £11,000 for stumbling off a kerb and another made £1,750 after falling off a bouncy castle. More than £25,000 was handed to someone who “tripped over a raised edge” in Rochdale, Lancs.
Flintshire County Council in North Wales shelled out £12,000 after a child “slipped on a foam play shape” and the same amount was paid to someone who fell in a sauna. Someone failed to sue Newport City Council after having “2/3 pints in the afternoon and tripping over a pothole”.
Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis said: “This research shows the need for clamping down on the compensation culture. Councils need to be more robust in rejecting spurious claims.”