THE Vale of Glamorgan Council has hit out at the "wholly inaccurate" and "extremely misleading" compensation claim figures released by the TaxPayer's Alliance today.

The campaign group issued a press release today which claimed that the Vale of Glamorgan council paid out £1,120,528 in compensation claims to members of the public over the last two financial years, the highest amount of any council in Wales.

However, as the TaxPayer's Alliance own research notes explain, these figures are also factoring in "outstanding estimates", claims that have yet to be settled and may never actually be paid out.

The actual figure, the Vale of Glamorgan council say, is far lower at £225,211 in total since 2013. The claims are largely for personal injury and car or property damage.

Responding to the TaxPayer's Alliance claims, Rob Thomas, Managing Director of the Vale council said: “The figure given by the taxpayers alliance is wholly inaccurate and extremely misleading.

"The Vale of Glamorgan Council provided information detailing all insurance claims, via a freedom of information request, that clearly stated £225,211.86 had been paid out between 2013 and 2015. A figure far from that which this group allege.

"The cost of insurance claims is a significant cost pressure on local government and so the Vale of Glamorgan Council has worked hard in recent years to reduce expenditure in this area. This is why we are very concerned that information has been put into the public domain which could mislead the public as to the extent of our spending.”

In November last year the TaxPayer's Alliance came under fire from council's across Wales, including the Vale, when they released figures purporting to show the number of council staff members earning more than £100,000 a year, figures which it transpired were outdated and in some cases including pension costs and redundancy payments to officers who had already left their posts.