A person who injured their hand on a light bulb is to be paid compensation by Cambridge City Council. And so is a Cambridge Folk Festival reveller who slipped.
These are two compensation claims highlighted in today’s Cambridge Evening News, they were obtained by the paper from Cambridge City Council using the Freedom of Information Act.
It says dozens of people are demanding cash payouts for injuries in the last two years, but asked the paper not to publish the sums involved in individual cases to prevent copycat claims, they range from between £1,500 and £25,000.
I’m surprised this kind of information has to be obtained via the FOI Act, I’m pretty sure it used to be on council agendas when I reported at council meetings. But we clearly live in a “hush culture”, as well as a “compensation culture”. This kind of info should be in the public domain, it should not be kept secret.
What has happened to the “common sense culture” which Tony Blair promised to replace it? Common sense would have kept our schools open when it snowed last week instead of closing them in case a child slipped over or was pelted by a snowball.
It makes me wonder how some people get through the day having to cope with so many risk assessments. What are your views on today’s compensation culture, where should we draw the lines? I’m just going to make a coffee, a very risky business as it involves the use of electricity and boiling water - both potentially fatal elements - but I like to live dangerously!
