Posted By John Donaldson The old rule of thumb which I worked to was 1 inch but with metrication that somehow came down to 20 mm. There was an anecdotal tale that Liverpool, who suffered lots of trip claims, set that as the point above which they would pay out and became the accepted norm. I am sure someone will correct me. Seriously it all comes down to risk assessment. There are some areas where a 20 mm step would be acceptable but others where it would not.

Posted By peter gotch Bryn We have pavement inspectors working for various eg local authorities. Different highways authorities have varied standards as to what constitutes a defect requiring action. Some of them have put pressure on us not to report defects which are less than their threshold trip level (something we have refused to do!!) Some helpful commentary at http://www.guildhallcham...rts/PI_JH_15_NOV_01.html Clearly one of the factors you need to consider is the population at risk, ie is there a high proportion of particularly susceptible users, eg frail, partially sighted, wheel chair bound etc. The then Secretary of State for Scotland was ordered to pay £0.5m compensation to someone who fell at Rosyth, despite contrib negligence being decided in respect of the victim's 4 pints before falling. Regards, Peter

Posted By Dave Wilson When I worked for a LA it was a 2p piece.