REGARDING your story headlined Council is forced to pay £970,000 on January 27.

Successive government reports have found the so-called "compensation culture" to be a fallacy, yet it seems the Taxpayers' Alliance is determined to perpetuate the old chestnut.

Let's not forget that for every successful personal injury claim, an injury which should not have happened has been proven.

It is negligence that causes the real cost to taxpayers, in unnecessary pain and suffering.

But if the local authority has genuine grounds to believe it was not at fault then of course the claim should be challenged.

I have no objection to that at all.

I do, however, object to a debate in which a human being's physical injury is placed in the same category as damage to a vehicle or other property.

Jonathan Wheeler President, Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) Nottingham