The driveway outside the Tufnell Park property

A BASHED-UP gate and dented driveway has cost the Town Hall almost £2,000 in a bizarre and “completely avoidable” legal saga over a bin lorry collision.

Islington Council contractors reversed a dustbin truck into the “very narrow” driveway of a Tufnell Park mansion block in 2024, damaging the drive and gate of the property.

Andrew Wilson, the co-director of the company that manages the property freehold, told the Tribune that rather than take responsibility for the damage and pay for the repairs at the time, they were strung along by the council in a lengthy and costly battle, which ended up in county court.

When the court date came around, almost 18 months after the incident, Mr Wilson and his colleagues were surprised to find the barrister acting on behalf of the Town Hall admitted liability straight away, and made an offer to cover the cost of the repairs, as well as compensation for the time and inconvenience.

Mr Wilson said that for compensation, repairs and resources (learnt from a Freedom of Information request he submitted), the Town Hall has now spent £1,850, a “ridiculous” waste of time and money.

Bin collection workers at the mansion block

Mr Wilson, a retired lawyer, said he had complained multiple times through the council complaints process and then the financial ombudsman, hearing “almost nothing back”.

He added: “In 99 cases out of 100 the people in a situation like this would have just given up, and so that’s what we figured, they were trying to treat this as an adversarial situation. They thought they’d have a lot of fun by stuffing us around in the belief that we would never get it to court.

“So, the situation is slightly embarrassing for the council now because their total cost is £1,850. They could have settled it for £250 by just sending a couple of workers around to fix it, but now everything has been completely blown up.”

Mr Wilson said he intends to appeal the court settle­ment and sue the council for a further £700 of compensation.

An Islington Council spokesperson said: “We’re committed to working with residents to ensure that streets and shared areas work as well as possible for all, including by responding to complaints.

“We thank Mr Wilson for raising this issue and – as always when complaints are raised – we have worked to resolve this.”