Dec 30 2009
Snow clearing
I have received a number of complaints about the state of pavements, side roads and main routes. I am taking these up with the Highways Agency and with the Wokingham Borough Council CEO. I would like the authorities to be better prepared next time.
I am also pursuing the question of legal liability if you clear your own section of pavement or tarmac area near your home or shop. It does seem bizarre if you run a risk by trying to clear it, but run no risk if you just leave it.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
I and my neighbours (about a dozen of us in total) cleared our pavements so that the pensioners (and us) would not fall over and break something. While we were doing it a car skidded and mounted the pavement and our cleared pavement gave it enough grip to stop before smashing into a wall. We gave the driver a good telling off for driving too fast in ice.
None of us thought about liability. We thought about each other and the elderly.
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Forgive the language – but sod the legal liability issues.
When I worked in retail and it snowed, I always went out and cleared the snow from the pavement in front of the shops.
Considering how few other shops would do that, the brief respite offered outside our shop from trudging through slushy snow or slipping over ice was damn good marketing for the business.
Just last week I went out with a rake to clear a length of pavement outside the estate where I live now.
Not just good for the local community, but it actually makes you feel better to do something like that. And the few comments of thanks were quite warming on a cold evening.
Maybe I was being technically stupid and putting myself at theoretical risk of legal liability in my actions.
However, had someone been stupid enough to sue me after they wobbled out in the snow wearing high-heels and then tried to blame me for their lack of balance, I know the local media will delight in ripping the idiot to pieces should the matter go to court.
It would only take a tiny fraction of a percentage point of residents to go out and clear a few yards of pavement and you could have every path in the country cleared in a mater of hours.
If the next Conservative government does relax the laws on self-defence inside the home – maybe they can also relax the liability laws regarding the pavements outside their homes at the same time.
Then we’ll have more paths cleared quicker, and fewer people visiting the hospital with broken ankles.
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Manuel Button Reply:
January 10th, 2010 at 10:32 am
Of course you are absolutely right – what a lot of rubbish this legal liability is – Has there ever been a case where someone was actually successfully sued for clearing their path and someone slipping? We can’t go on like this where we are scared to do ordinary things for the good of the community. Can we mount a campaign against this and all such stupidity?
Manuel
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The proof thar no good dead will go unpunished!!!
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The interesting site is http://www.fixmystreet.com/
You report a problem by planting a flag on a map, with a discription. Fly tipping, vandalism, etc You can upload a photo and if you have an IPhone there is nice app to make this simple.
They they email the local council.
Statistics are produced. It works. Initially lots of councils were anti, because it was the public ordering them to do something. However they have now realised that this is the voters wanting something, and they can solve it.
Go on, report a problem today!
Nick
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As I understand it, in certain of the more northerly cities in the USA, one can get fined for failing to clear the sidewalk outside one’s house. That sounds a far more neighbo(u)rly proposition.
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How bizarre. In the USA, you can be legally liable if you *don’t* clear the pavement in front of your home after a snowfall.
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[...] year off with, but let’s consider a slippery patch of negligence. John Redwood worries on his blog about the liability of those who have attempted to clear ice from pavements and driveways becoming [...]
Good for you Mr Redwood.
Perth has been deep in snow for several days now. I cleared my pavement and our neighbourhood has dug out parts of our street.
This has been opportunity to leave the car in the garage for a change and use our feet to get around. It usually means walking down the middle of the street. Some streets have been cleared (mainly those on bus routes), and some have not.
By my reckoning, about 5% of the pavements have been cleared by adjacent homeowners. Some home owners have blocked pavements when they clear their drives – how selfish is that?
It seems clear that the local authority is in a fix. Their capacity to clear snow has been overwhealmed. I can have some sympathy with that, given the relatively mild winters of the last decade and pressures to reduce costs.
In Germany, liability falls to the person who fails to clear their pavement. I don’t think things need to go so far as that – we only need to ensure that public spirited behaviour is recognised in law. There should be mitigation and/or protection from liability when a person has made an effort with the intention of reducing risks to the public.
Perhaps the risk of litigation helps to act as a deterrent to individual action. This can be added to lazyness and selfishness amongst able bodied householders. We seem to be happy to moan about the loacal authority instead of standing up and take the initiiative for ourselves whem given such an immediate and obvious way to help ourselves. Whatever happened to the great British Bulldog?
As a side issue, some say our capacity to clear snow has also been reduced byt the superstition of man Made Global Warming Catastrophe. The MET office produces forecasts which factor-in an assumption of a warming trend. So we get a steady drip-drip of forecasts of “barbeque” summers , mild winters, and record breaking years. These have at least 50% chance of being completely wrong, and they have been completely wrong in the last few years. Perhaps it’s another issue for another day – but make no mistake, there will be bad decisions from the idiotic sky-falling-downery of Man Made Global Warming Alarmism.
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Your local authority is responsible for clearing snow and ice from the public highway and pavement. Under Section 41(1A) of the Highways Act 1980, the council must ensure that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow or ice. If the local authority fails to act, you can apply to the magistrates’ court under the same legislation for an order to unblock the highway within a reasonable period – although such orders are very rare indeed.
Private landowners are not obliged to clear snow or ice from the highway, even if the road or pavement passes over their land. Indeed, from a legal point of view it may be risky for private individuals to clear these areas. By sweeping snow from one part of the pavement you can create a danger in another area and if someone is injured, you will be liable for negligence or nuisance.
On your own land, it is a different matter. You owe visitors a duty under the Occupiers Liability Act 1984 to take reasonable care to ensure that they are reasonably safe. This means that if you know someone (such as the postman) is likely to walk up your garden path, and you also know that the garden path is slippery, you must take reasonable steps to clear the path of snow and grit it if necessary.
Property advice from the experts
However, you should not simply brush the snow from your path on to the public pavement. It is also a public nuisance to block the pavement of the road by sweeping snow from your property on to the highway.
Your neighbours are therefore quite right to clear their own paths, but are taking a legal risk in clearing the public pavement – no matter how public-spirited their actions may seem.
Mark Loveday is a barrister at Tanfield Chambers, 2-5 Warwick Court, London WC1R 5DJ. 020-7421 5300
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John M Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Hugh Duffy confirms that ” By sweeping snow from one part of the pavement you can create a danger in another area and if someone is injured, you will be liable for negligence or nuisance. ”
Thank you Hugh for confirming that the law is an utter ass (Charles Dickens’ words, not mine). Long live the “no win no fee” litigation lawyers who have ruined society for sensible people.
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Past comment from Hugh Duffy re snow clearance
Refer to http://property.timesonline.co.uk
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Just a thought ,why don’t they make it a legal requirement for the long term unemployed to clear the snow. It doesn’t matter if they slip and break a leg,they’ll still be being paid by the rest of us!
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“Can we mount a campaign against this and all such stupidity?”
Manuel Button Reply:
January 10th, 2010 at 10:32 am
Yes it’s called a general election where we resign new labour to the history books once and for all
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I would like a campaign to give clarity to citizens who want to make their own environment safer when it snows.
Let us accept the reality that the Local Council are not in a position to discharge their responsibility to clear snow or grit all foot paths and roads.
By leaving a surface and allowing the snow to compact and ice over into a treacherous state, leads to falls and breakages which may result in death, particularly in the elderly.
I do not feel that this is an acceptable position to take on the basis of fear that someone may later slip and attempt a claim against a well meaning citizen.
Who is to say that the ‘claimant’ may have been exercising due diligence anyway, but attempts a claim solely on the basis that an inappropriate avenue exists.
The law mentions ‘malicious’ and ‘negligent’ in the actions of a person clearing snow.
‘Throwing snow into your neighbours garden’ has been cited, as has ‘blocking others driveways.
A Local Authority snow plough would push the snow evenly into the kerbside and mildly build up a deposit across a drive.
So what is unacceptable about a citizen clearing a foot path in a similar manner…….. and of course clearing the drive entrance in a responsible way in consideration of those around?
Ah…. ‘but what if it re freezes and you have not gritted?’… i hear you ask………
So is each householder expected to buy rock salt for this purpose?
I would suggest not………….. on the basis that an appropriately cleared path provides a safer surface on which to walk because it is more even and less chance of slippage.
Let us accept that this surface may later be affected by black ice if it were to re freeze, just as the snow and compact ice would, if it had not been cleared, but at least it would be even.
A pavement cleared of snow has a warning for all to see………. the snow piled up in the gutter!!!!!!!!!!! Is this not an indication that it is cold and the path may still be slippery?
We now have signs put out by the council warning a surface may be slippery……… we can see it’s got ice and snow on it!!…. of course it may be slippery.
Common sense should prevail, we have a duty of care to ourselves, to be careful and to accept responsibility for our actions.
Buy the correct footwear, use snow grips in ice and snow just as we would wear a rain garment in inclement weather.
We should feel free to be public spirited without the risk of the ‘claim culture’ so long as we have been responsible and well intended in our actions.
How about agreeing a minimum width to be cleared, snow to be distributed evenly in say the gutter and if possible, the surface swept after shovelling if it is possible?
We manage to negotiate foot paths and roads in our Towns and Cities when repairs are being carried out, so why can’t we walk round a little pile of snow in the winter?………….. oh sorry i forgot…………….. because someone could get some money out of it.
‘If we are not part of the solution, we are probably part of the problem.’
Well then, let’s find a way to resolve this hideous state of affairs.
Thank you for creating this forum.
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I can not believe I haven\’t been to this website before!…
There are many elderly people living in our community in Surrey and I have contacted our Residents Association with a view to starting a campaign to get residents in Surrey to commit to clearing snow from the footpath outside their houses on the rare occasions it does snow in Surrey.
You people should do the same.
I have contacted Surrey County Council asking if there were any legal reasons why people should not clear the snow from their footpaths, there are none. This is their response.
“We have been informed by our legal department that if members of the public decide to clear ice and snow from outside their home or shop, there is no reason why they should be liable to anyone who subsequently falls on the surface they have cleared, unless they have created an obstruction or anything else that could predictably cause an injury. For example, if hot water is used in clearing the ice and snow, it is foreseeable that this could create more ice. Or if a mound of snow is left on the path or road, this could cause an obstruction.
“Straightforward clearance is perfectly in order. As with any other action, members of the public should act sensibly and consider the effect their actions might have on other people. As long as snow is cleared responsibly and without causing further risk for passers-by, there would be no liability”.
Surrey Council have also offered to supply grit bins where needed.
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