Last week my running partner fell (tripped) whilst running along a poorly lit uneven residential street. Two hours in A&E 2 x-rays and a fair bit of nasty tugging has straigtened her fracured and dislocated finger. Tonight she fell again on a different piece of poorly lit and uneven pavement, luckily she didn't hurt herself seriously this time. I am really angry about this: Thank God she isn't elderly or frail! Why can't councils look after street lighting etc?!
Rant over. Jiggi
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Hope your friend is ok and not too shaky.
Now obviously you can't have both. So the Government (Lab or Tory, makes no difference) devolves responsibility for an increasing number of local services to councils or regional authorities. They then give them an amount of money (signifigantly smaller than the Govt had been spending) in central funding and a limited right to raise local funds through the likes of teh Council tax.
That way central Govt can lower your percieved tax rates (income tax most obviously) while blame poor services on "bad choices" being made at a local level.
Compensation - understandable from an individual perspective - makes things worse from an organisational perspective. It's like teh bank charging you a tenner for a £15 standing order that pushes you over your overdraft limit.
While I have every sympathy there isn't a lot that you can do without wholesale re-education of teh electorate.
You need to be careful night and day.
Hope future runs are paving incident free
This is in European-infrastructure Germany.
Lucky I didn't break my foot.
Obviously this makes me a hypocrite as I do carry on running when I get to badly lit or dark stretches but I accept the responsibility myself.
Another point it that councils don't employ people to walk the streets checking for broken lamps, cracked pavements etc. If something is amiss, report it and it might get fixed.
Sorry if it sounds like I'm dismissing your injuries, I'm not. Just trying to get a bit of perspective.
Running is a bit of a risk. If she was walking she would have been fine.
The council cant do everything, but sounds like your pal cant be bothered to even get a head torch.
I broke my leg in an unlit tunnel in daylight (sunny out - dark in the tunnel).
I stepped on a winebottle on its side that I just didnt see. It hurt.
I wouldnt want to sue the council even though people reckoned I should - how can they do everything ? I couldnt see where I was going - I should have walked. If there are patches that you can't see where you're going - either walk, get a headtorch, or risk running but dont expect sympathy from me if you fall.
Over grown stuff does annoy me but I always forget to contact the council - also not always sure which council I need to contact.
Not bothered to get a head torch! On a public footpath at 7pm with (inadequate) street lights..... ?! Don't be ridiculous!!!I think it's the council's responsibility to provide adequate lighting. If that's not the case, then remove the lights completely, that way one wouldn't assume that the path is lit. I'm talking about London here, not the middle of nowhere! In anycase, it's not just the light, last night's incident happened because the paving slab was broken and unstable. It actually tipped her over. I'm all for personal responsibility and she's not out for compensation, but I do think councils have a respobsibility to maintain the highways and byeways and I shall write and tell them so.
OK - I was a bit flippant - but worse things happen all the time to nice people.
That put paid to any housework/gardening for the rest of the day - shame eh?!
Have had a couple of pavement trips myself, on one I continued my nine mile run and then wondered why my leg had swelled to double size !! It did get better though.
I think a lot of problems happen when cable companies dig up pavements or new housing developments go up. I reckon the councils should make them relay the pavements once they have finised. Good pavements, no public money !
In terms of street lighting, the only thing that LAs will look at is the crime issue - well-lit streets help to discourage crime. Added to which for residential areas is the NIMBY problem - residents don't want the street lights to be too bright to stop them from sleeping.
In terms of the paving then yes the LA has some responsibility but as Brooks said, it probably wasnt't them who damaged it. If the damage was reported & they didn't fix it then you can sort of blame them, although I'd be happier to blame the company who damaged the paving. However, you can't expect LA staff to regularly check all the pavements across their borough and council tax payers won't pay for it.
I have asked my local councillor to look into it and get it sorted and although he is getting further than me it has taken him all summer and now it is dying back naturally anyway.