Potholes, pavements, rogue tree roots and other issues have forced Greenwich Council to pay almost £1.5m in compensation for claims against them in the past three years.

A Freedom of Information request revealed that the council paid out for 548 claims since 2015, including 248 in 2015 alone costing the council almost £700,000.

The highest amount paid out for a single claim in those three years was £82,500 for a knee injury caused by tripping on a pavement in 2012, finally paid out in 2016.

Damages to road and pavements proved incredibly costly to the council, with another person receiving £40,000 for a food injury caused by a pothole, and another receiving £57,500 for a bone fracture caused by a footway defect.

Trees on council land also turned out to be very damaging financially for the council as tree roots would damage private property.

One claim saw the council pay out £30,000 for structural damage caused by a tree root, along with other similar cases of rogue tree roots costing the council £20,000 and £12,000 respectively.

On the other end of the spectrum, the council had to pay out eye-watering amounts of £21 and £24 due to damage caused by falling trees, and an unusually large amount of £50-£100 compensation payments due to vehicle damage caused by grass cutting.

However the perils of grass cutting could cost the council a lot more than that at times. On six separate occasions in three years the council had to pay out over £1,000 for vehicle damage caused by grass cuttings.

The number of claims have dropped each year, with only 132 so far in 2017 adding up to £274,000.

Housing claims were a common reason the council had to pay out compensation.

Faulty structures causing physical injury, from whiplash to bone fractures, but equally common were flooding and condensation bringing in mold to the property, with people claiming the condensation had worsened their asthma.

Even icy roads or pavements proved costly for the council, with one case paid out in 2015 seeing the council have to pay out £32,450 for a fractured ankle caused by flooding or icy roads or pavements.

Councillor Denise Hyland, leader of Greenwich Council, said: “Like all councils, the Royal Borough of Greenwich has to pay compensation for a variety of reasons such as flooding and potholes.

“We work very hard to keep the borough as safe as we possibly can and in the past two years the number of claims has dropped by almost 50 per cent and the amount paid out has more than halved. Our compensation is in line with councils of a similar size.”