Council 'ignorance' criticised: NSW judge A NORTHERN NSW council has escaped paying $800,000 in damages to a cyclist who catapulted into a ravine while crossing a wooden bridge because of its "ignorance" of the risk and because it couldn't afford to repair the structure. Dr Ann Collins lost her Supreme Court case against Clarence Valley Council after Justice Robert Beech-Jones found she should have been aware of the dangers involved in crossing the wooden bridge during a charity cycle in April 2008. But the council came in for scathing criticism from the judge, who conceded its success in defending the case would probably seem "counter-intuitive" to some. "The council is able to avoid liability primarily because of its own ignorance of the risk posed by the structure whose responsibility it was to maintain and the limits on its own resources," he said in a judgment handed down last Friday. The court heard Dr Collins was badly injured after her bike got stuck in a gap between planks on the bridge, causing her to fall over the low rail and onto a rocky ravine below. She sued the council on several grounds, including that the bridge was in bad repair and steps should have been taken to minimise the risk to cyclists. The council denied it was negligent and argued it could not carry out improvements, such as resurfacing the bridge, because it would then have to carry out similar improvements on all 146 wooden bridges in the area. The court heard the council's budget was in deficit in 2008 and repairing the bridges would have meant it had to defer other work on its road network or borrow funds. Justice Beech-Jones agreed the council could not have repaired the bridge principally because "It could not afford to bear the burden imposed by those steps, bearing in mind that this would impose a responsibility on it to take steps to avoid similar risks of harm on other bridges." However, he said it should have put up a warning sign. " (The bridge) was overall in a poor state," he said. It represented a danger to cyclists. The council ought to have been aware that it was used by cyclists and was such a danger. The council's ignorance of the risk "does not reflect well upon its own practices," Justice Beech-Jones added. (But) whether the limits on its resources exist because of its own inefficiencies or because of factors beyond its control cannot be inquired into.