A TEACHER hit in the face with a shot putt, a firefighter who became deaf after being exposed to a fire engine pump, and a council worker who suffered a heart attack after being attacked by a colleague – these are just some of the compensation claims Surrey County Council has been forced to pay out for since 2008, costing taxpayers more than £1million in the process.
According to figures released to the Mirror following a Freedom of Information request, a total of 67 claims have been made against the council by its staff from 2008 to January this year.
As a result, the taxpayer has forked out a hefty £1,110,424 in compensation costs – with only one of the 67 claimants receiving no money: the one who said they had "slipped on ice in some woods, suffering a broken wrist".
The council faced the largest number of claims in 2008, when it was forced to pay out for 22 incidents.
But the biggest single payment – made to an employee who was hit by a falling panel after work was completed by a council contractor – was last year. They received £83,076.
Joy Ridley of Surrey County Council said: "As a responsible employer we do everything we can to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of our staff.
"However, in an organisation of this size and with such a range of workplace activities, including fire and rescue, it is inevitable that accidents will happen.
"We take our responsibilities very seriously and when claims are justified we compensate our staff appropriately. But we are also very aware of our responsibility to our taxpayers and do not make such decisions lightly."
But Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said the figures highlighted the compensation culture that has developed in recent years.
He said: "Taxpayers will be shocked by these figures which demonstrate how much the worrying rise in the compensation culture in recent years is now costing us.
"Some claims because of negligence are to be expected, but a good number will either have been nobody's fault or could have been avoided with a bit of common sense.
"At the end of the day, accidents do happen. Every penny spent on settling these claims means less money available for council budgets and bigger bills for taxpayers."
