Revealed: Harrogate Borough Council forced to pay out more than £400,000 in compensation claims

Figures obtained by the Local Democracy Reporting Service show the council has shelled out an average of £80,000 in payouts each year during that time period.

However, the figures for 2016/17 are skewed by a single personal injury claim of £45,441 to a pedestrian who suffered injuries after tripping over a raised paving slab in Boroughbridge.

There was also £29,570 paid out in 2016 to the passenger of a vehicle who was injured in a car crash in the rural village of Blubberhouses.

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Other neighbouring local authorities have also released similar details, including Wakefield Council which in one incident paid out more than £6,000 to a spectator who fell through a chair next to a swimming pool.

A spokesman for Harrogate Borough Council said it will "inevitably" receive claims for compensation from time to time, "although very few" when compared to other councils.

“We therefore have liability insurance and internal reserves in place should we find that we need to use them," the spokesman said.

“We would of course try and prevent any accident or injury happening to someone else in the future by fixing or repairing the cause, whatever it might be.”

Motor claims were responsible for the largest compensation payments at Harrogate Borough Council with £237,353 - more than half of the total - paid out over the last five years.

One accident which resulted in a £7,083 payout involved a council waste and recycling vehicle crashing into a property on Oatlands Drive, Harrogate in 2019.

The breakdown for each financial year is as follows:

2015/16 - 97 claims and 39 payouts

2016/17 - 86 claims and 37 payouts

2017/18 - 95 claims and 40 payouts

2018/19 - 77 claims and 33 payouts

2019/20 - 71 claims and 33 payouts

Harrogate Borough Council received more than 420 compensation claims and paid out 182 of them between April 2015 and the start of this year, forking out just over £405,800 altogether in that time frame.

Forty seven of those claims are still active.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service will reveal more details of individual claims at a later date.

By Jacob Webster, Local Democracy Reporter