CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

The Pot Hole, The Council and the Lawyers

(22 posts)

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  1. spytfyre
    Member

    sounds a bit like the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

    I thought I would share with you a tale of woe

    A tale of a bad pot hole on Torphichen St a blown out back tyre and the paperwork waste of time

    So I complained on fixmystreet.com about the incident (Jan 13th - this is important remember this for later) and the council very kindly sent me a claim form which I filled in and sent back along with the receipt for approx £12 worth of parts

    The council's lawyers write back saying

    Your claim is being considered

    Time passes

    A new letter arrived a few days ago and goes something like this

    [quote]blah blah blah, you can't prove you did not misuse the road... blah blah blah, the Council has a responsibility to maintain the pavements and highways and as they had carried out a survey on the 11th and were aware of it but had not had time to fix it the Council is not at fault...

    Right, are there any lawyers here who can explain this to me?
    They knew about it so that makes it OK?
    Can you tell me how much these two letters have cost the tax payer (ie. me) just to dodge £12?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  2. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Hmmm, very odd for them to actually admit to knowing there was a fault...

    As an aside I've got a similar claim, 'cept for a car wheel. Utterly unavoidable hole in the dark at a slow speed (less than 20mph), still completely knackered a run flat tyre. Edinburgh Council rather gleefully write to me, after sending me a claim form, to say it was outside their jurisdiction (by about 6 feet!) and Midlothian Council had been passed my request.

    They've been in touch, as have their assessors (in Falkirk???), to say I'll have an decision within 28 days. I put the original claim in with an FOI request about when the road was last checked, and how many cliams had been made and paid - not sure if that was passed on to Midlothian as well...

    Posted 14 years ago #

  3. Dave
    Member

    IANAL, but I think they only have to have a 'reasonable' inspection and maintainance program to discharge their liability.

    However, it is odd that they are paying their lawyers to respond to your letters for a £12 bill. Anth will know better than me but I suspect that's about thirty seconds of their time, which is hardly enough even to print a stock letter.

    In the absence of any better advice, I would keep pushing at them, and then if you end up frustrated, send in a FOI request for the cost of them not meeting your claim, which if it's magnitudes over £12 might make interesting reading for the EEN (who hate the council even more than they hate cyclists, although it's a close-run thing).

    Posted 14 years ago #

  4. spytfyre
    Member

    I like the idea of an FOI to find out how much it cost to send me the two letters - I wish I had thought of that...

    Posted 14 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    Then you could an FOI for how much the previous FOI cost...

    Posted 14 years ago #

  6. spytfyre
    Member

    the nevereding FOI... another movie title

    Posted 14 years ago #

  7. spytfyre
    Member

    FOI request is in... will update later

    Posted 14 years ago #

  8. Arellcat
    Moderator

    20 working days for a response, remember. If it goes beyond that, or if you have a case for being unhappy with (traditionally, the lack of) information released, you're entitled to ask them to conduct an independent review, which may or may not find in your favour. You could even then raise an entirely new FOI request for sight of the review document...which isn't quite in the spirit of the FOISA but is allowed, and on it goes.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  9. Arellcat
    Moderator

    So how are the FOI requests doing? Any responses yet? Anth asked about road condition surveys, Spytfyre asked about FOI costs, and in the Meadows paths thread Dave asked about path legalities.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  10. recombodna
    Member

    Why should you get a bean?? After all you don't pay road tax.....no pay no say!!!;p

    God I'm Hilarious

    Posted 14 years ago #

  11. spytfyre
    Member

    @Arellcat - Oh I called in after not receiving it (they claimed they had sent it)
    Apparently the "third part" they sent it to are not lawyers and it didn't cost a penny to the council

    I will be looking the letters out of my crap pile of paper work sometime over the weekend, calling the company and asking them directly...

    @recombodna - I have two cars, one of which is a classic and does less than 1000 miles a year, so I pay my tax and pay it well, if you like I could put the tax disc from that car on my bike as it is safely parked off the publis highways and byways :)

    Posted 14 years ago #

  12. recombodna
    Member

    That's a good point ! I wonder if classic car drivers are subjected to the same "road tax' speil as cyclists.....? "that mini's 40 years old you have no right to be on the road etc etc blah blah"

    Posted 13 years ago #

  13. spytfyre
    Member

    the 40 year old mini also costs a shed load less to maintain, my honda cost me £400 for a new catalytic converter and a further £400 for back exhuast when my escort cost me £55 for the whole assembly... also the insurance is crazy cheap, however it doesn't have seatbelts in the back and none can be fitted as it was the last model to leave the production line before they even thought of adding the achor points that future belts could attach to... so it is far away from being a "family car" and as such gets left to sit until I need to somewhere solo beyond the range of bike and too far from a train station

    Posted 13 years ago #

  14. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    I'm torn at the mo between a Mini, MGB GT and Triumph Spitfire as a wee starter classic...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  15. spytfyre
    Member

    I'd go with the mini

    Posted 13 years ago #

  16. wee folding bike
    Member

    I've got a '71 VW 1600TE Fastback with rear seat belts. They aren't original but the mountings were always there.

    It's not a great choice for a classic car as the parts are more difficult to find than Beetle or Kombi parts. It hasn't moved since early '02.

    Why would you choose the MG BGT over the normal MG B?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  17. chdot
    Admin

    This forum is de-generating....

    Posted 13 years ago #

  18. spytfyre
    Member

    yup

    Posted 13 years ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    "Why would you choose the MG BGT over the normal MG B?"

    He must be a Richard Thompson fan.

    http://www.elyrics.net/read/r/richard-thompson-lyrics/mgb,,gt-lyrics.html

    Posted 13 years ago #

  20. spytfyre
    Member

    now we've moved on to music...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  21. recombodna
    Member

    I used to have a mini clubman estate with a 1300 engine......best car I ever had..sob gone now sob!! and the motorbike hasn't seen action for a couple of years.....

    Posted 13 years ago #

  22. chdot
    Admin

    "now we've moved on to music..."

    [+] Embed the video | Video DownloadGet the Video Player

    .

    http://www.bikeradar.com/blogs/article/songs-about-bicycles-19539

    http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/yradish/40278/top-10-bicycle-songs/

    http://bikesongs.blogspot.com

    etc. (new thread someone....)

    Posted 13 years ago #

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