A victim of the Clutha tragedy has launched a legal bid against Glasgow City Council for allegedly failing to offer him financial assistance from the charity fund set up to help survivors of the crash.
Retired firefighter Douglas Naismith was injured in the disaster when a police helicopter crashed through the roof of the Glasgow bar on November 29, 2013, killing 10 people.
The charity Clutha Appeal Fund donated payments based a sliding scale and was formally closed on September 22 last year.
It recently came under fire after claims that half the casualties affected did not received any payments, however the council said it was correctly audited and that the fund was set up to "provide recognition and acknowledgement by society of the experience of being involved in a disaster" rather as a substitute for insurance or compensation for injury or loss.
Mr Naismith, from Giffnock, claims that he was not made aware of financial assistance and was declined in his request for practical homecare help due to his injuries.
He has required surgery since the crash and suffered from a broken shoulder and neck and hip injuries.
He is reported to say: "I'm one of the very lucky ones. I survived against all the odds that night. But my injuries meant I was struggling to deal with everyday tasks.
"It's the only help I ever asked for. They didn't mention financial help. It was only months later when I read somewhere the fund was being round up, that I was shocked to realise it was there.
"I wrote to the council but was told the fund was closed. I was dumbfounded."
Mr Naismith's legal representative, David Short, claimed the council was in breach of Section 12 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act of 1968, saying "as far as we are concerned, they have failed in their duty of care. We want them to revisit this matter. It is now with their legal department."
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said it was not possible to comment if a matter was subject to legal action.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article