I wonder how much better the roads and pavements would be if the money paid out to people not looking where they were going was spent on maintenance instead?

If you see damage to the road or footpaths in your local area, you should report it. They're usually quite prompt to repair them once they know about it. The same goes for dead street lights and any other potential hazard. If you trip over a hazard that has not been reported, then I'd suggest it's not the council's fault.

I do wonder about how human kind managed to survive before we had tarmac paths. I guess our heads weren't quite so high in the clouds so we could still see our feet?

I don´t think you should have that right to compensation, I think you should be told to look where your´re going, you get free treatment anyway.

If the pothole or whatever had not been reported the council will use that as an excuse to not record faults until they are ready to fix them. It will happen, it just will not be common knowledge.

There is a limit to looking where you are going, You really should be paying attention to traffic not road surface quality.

Assuming there isn't permanent damage. If my ability to work is impaired then I should get compensation for that too.

If you don't like it I suggest you lobby for councils to be given exemption from their legal duty to maintain footpaths. I pay council tax for them to do it, so they bloody well should.

That's simply not true. I complained to Cardiff Council on numerous occasions about "ponding" on Caerphilly Road, never heard a peep. I then badgered a local councillor, who was assured it would be fixed within 28 days. It wasn't. My own local authority's record (Cornwall) is even worse.

Around here, most repairs to really dangerous potholes are completed within a month of being reported, depending on suitable weather. Obviously they can't do it if it's sub zero, so in the winter you have to expect dangerous conditions. Street lights are generally repaired in less than a week, sometimes the next day. You need to vote in a new council if yours are that useless.

I'm not sure what you mean by "ponding". Do you mean there's an area prone to puddles? That hardly sounds like an emergency to me, and I can think of several areas on our local roads which are quite treacherous when the water freezes over. I've generally considered that a natural hazard, although in one place it was due to the ditches not being correctly maintained. I have no idea who is responsible for them though; possibly the water board?

It's large areas of road where deep puddles develop, It's not only dangerous for cars (aquaplaning), but it's not pleasant for pedestrians either when they get drenched by passing cars when stood at bus stops or pedestrian crossings. In fact one area of ponding was next to a staircase, meaning not only were pedestrians hit by a wall of falling water, but the steps were slippery too.

If that was me I would think to myself 'daft bugger you should really look where you're going, if you don't take your head out of your arse you'll wipe yourself out of the gene pool one of these days'.

But that's what I would think to myself. I tend to take responsibility for things rather than look to blame others though.

+1

Agree entirely, but that was more elegantly put that what I could manage.

Dear council,

I was walking down one of my local pavements today and tripped on a small hole. I've been walking now since I was a toddler, so don't think it was through lack of practice! Seeing as I pay my council tax, I decided that I didn't need to use my eyes, how wrong was I! What's more I repeatedly banged my head against the pavement and it turns out that you've using hard tarmac! That's dangerous! I demand that you stop building that School for the Blind down the road and immediately divert funds to the building of 100% flat, marshmallow pavements around my immediate vicinity. With signs every ten metres to remind people to not set themselves on fire and to breathe at regular intervals. I inclose an invoice for the sticking plasters that I was FORCED to buy to cover my badly grazed left knee.

Yours with anger,

Mr. A. Taxpayer

Dear Mr. Taxpayer,

Thank you for your recent communication. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to you on behalf of the entire universe for your recent mishap, but I do also need to make the following points.

1. Whilst we at the council take full responsibilty for the state of the roads, we must also make the point that since god created everything, (including the small hole you fell over) you may be better advised to contact him with regards to compensation.

2. We did investigate the possibility of making the roads and paths out of marshmallow and did in fact run a pilot scheme where we built several roads using the afore mentioned material, but unfortunately we had to stop the scheme, following the very public lawsuit bought by Mr. O Bese, who claimed that, having eaten a half mile stretch of dual carriageway was unable to find gainful employment.

3. We are in the planning stages of a scheme designed to encourage people not to set themselves on fire, and as a bonus we are also running the pilot scheme for the "Don't run with scissors" and "knives cut things" campaigns as we speak, so watch this space.

I would like to remind you that we did also recently release the highly successful iPod App "iBreathe" which is still on sale for the bargain price of £9.99. This app periodically reminds you to breathe, (both in AND out) and should be considered an essential app.

I would like to end by thanking you for taking the time to write to us, and take great pleasure in enclosing a packet of sticking plasters to replace the ones you were forced to use.

Regards,

A. Councillor.

If we had rep, you two would have just got LOADS!

Dear Mr Councillor.

Thank you for your communication of the nth inst, and for the sticking plasters. I have had recourse to use some already since I received a paper cut while opening the envelope containing your letter.

I'd like to take issue with your first point, namely that god created everything so I therefore must blame he/she/it for all the woes that have befallen me since first venturing down my street.

I can tell you for a fact god didn't make the hole I tripped over. It was caused by a couple of blokes in high visibility jackets and bad attitudes who failed to set the slabs correctly after digging the path up to repair a leak in the time-space continuum. I watched them while they did it, and while they read the Sun, scoffed packets of cheese puffs and spent inordinate amounts of time talking to others on their mobile phones.

Yours

A Taxpayer

Dear Mug ^M^M^MTaxpayer

The hole itself was in fact caused not by the council but by the second law of thermodynamics, as part of the inevitable collapse of the universe. As such, the council cannot in fact be held liable and we suggest you contact the estates of Isaac Newton and/or Josiah Willard Gibbs for further discussion of compensation. As to the behaviour of the highly qualified council theoretical physicists who were present, I must inform you that they were in fact in constant communication with the council's Health & Safety department, as a council employee falling into the hole and injuring themselves would be considered a serious matter.

Yours
M Prosser, Council.

Dear Mr Prosser

How very nice to hear from you again. I hope the therapy sessions are helping you cope with the Mongol Hordes and visions of axes you had been suffering with the last time we had chance to correspond.

I fear we cannot continue this course of correspondence to any satisfactory conclusion for either party. I have therefore requested that my solicitors, Messrs Snatch, Grabbit and Runn, should begin proceedings against the council with regard to my original requests.

I shall be hitching a lift with a passing flying saucer shortly, and I hope this matter will be satisfactorily concluded by the time I return to this planet.

Yours etc.

Mr A Dent