Council pays out £35,000 after girl, 6, hurt playing game of tag

A playground game of tag has cost Hull City Council £35,000 after it agreed an out-of-court settlement with a mother who sued after her six-year-old daughter hurt herself.The popular break-time activity could now be banned from schools after the parent demanded that it be outlawed in case other children got injured playing it.She claimed teachers shouldn’t have allowed her daughter to be playing tag in the first place and the wooden planter on which she bumped her head was a hazard, despite it being passed by health and safety officers.The council decided it only had a 50/50 chance of winning the case and so agreed the payout over the incident at one of its primary schools.A spokeswoman said: ‘We only settle when we are liable. We will only go to court if we are confident that we will win the case.’As for the mother’s bid to have the game banished from the playground, she added: ‘It is up to the individual schools if they ban tag.’The council agreed to pay the child £1,100 damages, as well as covering her mother’s £12,900 legal costs, while its own costs ‘exceeded £20,000′.(metro.co.uk)ANN.Az