The Committee will receive a briefing on how the Council deal with highway claims.
Minutes:
The Committee received a presentation on Highway Claims. The Committee noted that under section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 the Highway Authority is responsible for “highways maintainable at the public expense” and has a statutory duty to maintain that highway. For Havering this includes all roads and pavements currently defined in the Highways Register, which is updated by Legal Services, and is a graphical representation of the adopted highway.
The Committee noted that if someone wishes to make a claim, they have up to 3 years from the incident date in the case of personal injury, and up to 6 years for property damage.
The Committee were informed that a Highway Incident Report Form (HIRF) was introduced some years ago to aid residents in submitting a claim for compensation. This included detail such as national insurance number and date of birth. Assistance could be given in completing the form however it was down to the claimant to explain how the incident happened. It was noted that if the claimant had a solicitor then the HIRF was not used. The Committee were given details of the number of HIRF forms sent out and those returned over the last 5 years. The Committee noted that there were more sent out than were returned.
Details of how a claim is investigated were explained to the Committee from the receipt of the HIRF or Solicitor’s letter of claim, through to the review of outcome. As soon as a defect or claim is reported officers go out and check the location. The location has to be agreed by both parties through a joint meeting if necessary.
There were 6 officers who carried out 6400 planned inspections along with 4800 ad hoc inspections, with approximately 6000 works orders raised per annum. All defects identified for repair must be repaired within strict timescales.
Members asked about damage caused by contractors. Officers explained that whilst this did not fall within the subject of highway claims, it did fall under reclaiming costs. The Committee were informed that the Council would endeavour to reclaim the cost of any repairs necessary, where damage had been caused to the public highway, by either contractors or private residents.
Officers explained that there was always ongoing maintenance of the public highway. Accidents could happen at any time, whether these are due to actionable defects or not. Due to the planned and ad-hoc inspections that were carried out, the Council had a section 58 defence in Court against third party claims, but also prevented accidents occurring in the first place.
Where an actionable defect had been identified, this was repaired within the strict timescales. If an accident occurred on an identified actionable defect which had not been repaired within the appropriate timescale, then the Council may be deemed to be liable, but this is not always necessarily so as there may be justifiable reasons why the defect had not been repaired.
The Committee requested that an estimate of the mileage of scheduled inspections be made available. Officers agreed to provide this to Committee Members.
The Committee were informed of the number of tripping claims attributed to footways and carriageway and claims of damage to vehicles caused by defective carriageways over the last 6 years, together with the cost of the claims and the potential cost savings.
The Committee were informed of future threats and challenges that may affect the service including reduction in the number of officers which could have a detrimental effect on the number of accidents that occur, the authority’s ability to successfully defend claims and the budget spend on reactive maintenance. There were a number of IT systems that could assist but all current system had issues and would have a knock on effect in the Council’s ability to successfully defend claims.