Latest victim of problem pavements

Now furious Pamela Heard is considering legal action against the council which, she says, has failed to make the streets of her home town safe.

The 69-year-old grandmother took the tumble in Cranfield Road, close to her flat in Grinley Court.

A series of similar accidents has made the state of Bexhill's pavements an on-going issue.

Mrs Heard said: "I'm very steady on my feet. I was only taking a walk to post some letters when I went over. I didn't know what had happened - just that I'd grazed my face and my left knee. It was terribly painful."

Within a few hours Mrs Heard was confined to her chair with bruising and swellings which completely closed her left eye.

"It's just typical of the state of our pavements," she fumed. "They're spending money at Barnhorn Road putting paths across the marshes when they want to be sorting out the town centre."

Husband Anthony, 71, a retired plumber agreed: "Look at Devonshire Road," he said. "There are always ambulances down there picking up the old dears. The council knows this is a town full of elderly people and they need safe pavements. The ones we have now are a disgrace."

However, a county council spokesman said the authority didn't have the money to tackle every raised slab and that a 25mm (one inch) 'trip' was the minimum that would trigger remedial work.

But she added: "All the footways in Bexhill are inspected at least every six months and the ones used most on a monthly basis.

"But in recognition of the public's concerns that the condition of footway surfaces was a priority an extra 300,000 is being invested countywide this year on footway renewal, kerbing and improving disabled facilities."

But that came as cold comfort to Mrs Heard. To add insult to injury, her tumble came a day before a long-awaited school reunion for pupils of the former St Mary's Church of England School, Ninfield.

She told the Observer: "I've been looking forward to meeting up with old friends so I'm going to try to get there; but I'm going to look a right one, aren't I!"