SLIPS, trips, accidents and injuries have cost Bradford Council nearly £3.2 million in compensation payouts in a year, new figures show.

The amount of cash being handed out to victims in 2014-15 was up significantly on the year before, with two-thirds of claims (65 per cent) being for slips and trips on the highways and pavements.

A further 16 per cent were claims from members of the public who had been injured at sports centres, playgrounds, car parks or other public buildings.

Fourteen per cent of claims were given to Council employees injured at work, and five per cent arose from motor accidents.

In contrast, claims settled in 2013-14 totalled £2.4m, the figures released under the Freedom of Information Act showed.

But Council leader David Green said many of the claims settled in the past year related to historic incidents which happened years, or even decades, ago.

He said: "Some of them, particularly related to environmental issues like asbestosis or deafness, are claims that might have actually related to incidents that happened 25 or 30-plus year ago and the claims have been made five or six years ago.

"It can take a claim that long to be settled."

He added that the Council was receiving far fewer compensation claims than it had been a decade ago, and described the figures as a "blip".

Cllr Green (Lab) said: "It might just be one of those blips, if you like, which means in the last two years we have settled a number of high-value claims."

Cllr Green said the Council had received 551 new claims for compensation in 2014-15.

In comparison, a decade before, in 2004-5, the authority had more than double the number of claims - 1,206 in total.

He said the authority was also working harder to defend itself against compensation demands, while honouring "genuine and legitimate claims".

He said: "We also have been fairly strong at robustly defending claims which we do not feel are valid.

"For instance, we win 75 per cent of claims brought against us."

Cllr Green said while big pay-outs were met by an insurance company, the Council still had to pay an excess - money which could otherwise be spent on services.

He added that the authority was "trying to be more efficient and prevent claims in the first place by trying to reduce the likelihood of slips and trips".

Councillor Simon Cooke, leader of the opposition Conservative group, said: "This has been a real issue for us for a long time - the question about whether we put lots of money aside for compensation for when people trip because we don't maintain the pavements properly, or we put in more money to maintain the pavements properly - because it all comes out of the same pot."

Cllr Cooke said if accidents were prevented, they would also cut A&E and social care costs.

He said: "By making pavements safer, we would actually have a much wider social benefit than just saving ourselves a bob or two."