WPS Town Council Insurance Scheme

We are pleased to provide our first quarterly e-bulletin.

January 2010

As mentioned in our last email, the topic of this is Liability Best Practice, which in view of the recent weather conditions has been extended to include some clarification of your responsibilities in regard to preventing slips and trips on icy pathways/pavements etc.

LIABILITY  BEST PRACTICE

Hiring of Halls: Slips and Trips

Carry out a risk assessment to prevent slips and trips. 

The risk assessment will require you to:

a.      Look for slip and trips hazards. For example:

Ø        Is the floor surface in good condition?

Ø        Are floors likely to become wet and slippery?

Ø        Can floor conditions change quickly? e.g. because of build up of waste

Ø        Do people use unlit or poorly lit paths or yard areas?

Ø        Are tripping hazards such as trailing cables routed away from walkways or covered/protected in some way?

Ø        Are cleaning rotas organised to avoid busy times?

Ø        Are cleaning substances chosen to reduce risk of slippery surfaces

b.      Decide who might be harmed and how

c.      Are there suitable controls in place?  If not determine new/improved control and implement

d.      Record findings

e.      Review on a regular basis

Prior to and after each hire of the premises an inspection should be carried out of the hall. Any areas which should be rectified should be completed prior to the hall being used again. A register should be maintained of the inspections, which should include the time, date, person dealing and a note of any repairs etc which have been carried out.

Ensure that the hirer of the premises has adequate Public Liability cover, (our own scheme is extended to include private individuals who hire your premises, however other policies may not).

Ensure that the hirer is aware of their responsibilities whilst hiring the premises; a checklist could be provided to them.  (A formal contract would be advisable).

Hirers of the premises should be asked to report any incidents or injuries to you immediately, at the time of the event.

General Slips and Trips

The responsibility of a Town council will involve many areas where slips and trips could produce a claim, i.e. Cemeteries, Parks, Allotments, Parks, Sports Facilities, etc.

The information provided by the links below may be appropriate for any area which falls under your responsibility.

www.aviva.co.uk/risksolutions - Hardfacts “Top Tips for Trips

www.hse.gov.uk/slips/

www.hsesat.info/

Adverse weather conditions and the implications for your Council

a) Your responsibility to the public

With regard the problems associated with seasonal snow and ice, the Health & Safety Executive will expect you to ensure the safety of visitors to those public areas that are within the Council’s control.  Councils should therefore grit and/or salt the areas concerned, in so far as resources enable you to do so.  Where resources are limited, their use should be dictated by priority and those areas with the heaviest foot or motor traffic should be treated first.  Where resources do not extend to allow you to treat all areas, those areas which remain untreated should either be signed as hazardous or roped off from public access.  Details of your activities should be recorded, detailing what was done and when it was done, so that you have a log of your reasonable precautions.

We appreciate that these are rather onerous steps to take, but we are wary that there will be claims made by individuals who slip and suffer injury, and believe that some will succeed if it cannot be demonstrated that reasonable precautions were taken.      

b) Provision of grit-bins only

If your Council is simply supplying the grit bin & the grit, then it is unlikely that any liability arising from an incident would be connected to your Council, unless the grit bin or the grit itself caused injury/damage to someone/something.

If local residents will simply be availing themselves of the grit for their own personal use (driveways etc) they would be acting on their own initiative and if their actions caused any damage/injury they would hopefully be protected by their home insurance.  Similarly, if they take it upon themselves (without direction from the Council) to spread grit on the public highways it will be the residents that any injured party should approach for compensation following an incident resulting from the grit spreading, which again should hopefully be covered under the resident’s home insurance.

Whether or not the residents have home insurance is beyond the Councils control.

It would be extremely unlikely that liability could attach itself to your Council unless your Council were to be involved in the actual use of the grit, (other than your liability in regard to the box itself causing injury/damage, e.g. having jagged edges that someone cuts themselves on; or the grit you are supplying turning out to be harmful in some way).

We hope the above information is of interest to your Council.

Should you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards

Andy Cotter