Injured jogger gets £3,000 in compensation from South Yorkshire council after falling in pothole

A jogger who injured his ankle after falling into a pothole has received £3,000 in compensation from a South Yorkshire council.
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A jogger who injured his ankle after falling into a pothole has received £3,000 in compensation from a South Yorkshire council.

Barnsley Council were ordered to pay the four-figure sum to Lee Crawley after he damaged his ankle ligaments while out jogging on Hill Top Avenue in Athersley.

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The pothole was described as six to eight inches deep and around 24 inches long.

Mr Crawley has only received the money despite suffering the injury in 2012 due to a lengthy legal battle.

Barnsley County Court initially ruled in the council's favour but after Mr Crawley's legal representatives appealed and Sheffield County Court ruled in favour of the complainant.

Barnsley Council then took their case to the Court of Appeal in London but a panel of judges said Mr Crawley had a case for compensation.

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The hearings heard the day before Lee’s accident on Friday, 27 January 2012, a member of the public had rang the council to report that the pothole had opened up.

In it’s defence, the council maintained that it had followed protocol in logging the report on its system and forwarding the enquiry to highway inspectors.

The court was told the message was not picked up by the highway inspector until the morning of Monday, January 30 and after a visit to the road, the pothole was repaired the following day.

Sheffield bases solicitors firm Graysons took on Mr Crawley's case.

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Peter Clark, managing partner and head of personal injury said: “It is the local authority’s duty to respond properly to complaints about hazards and have adequate response measures in place to deal with them. This judgement highlights the fact that it is not good enough for a local authority to downgrade the seriousness of a hazard or to use lack of resources as an excuse for not dealing with immediate repairs."