A FRUSTRATED daughter has criticised a council for lacking “common sense” after it failed to repair a loose paving slab which caused her mother to fall.

Jude McIntyre spent five hours in Colchester Hospital’s accident and emergency department after her 69-year-old mother was sent sprawling.

She had tripped on a loose stone in Pier Avenue, Clacton.

Mrs McIntyre and her husband, who is a first aider, managed to get her moving after waiting almost an hour for an ambulance.

The pensioner fell at about 4.50pm last Monday.

“An ambulance was called and people stayed with her to make sure she wasn’t on her own,” said Jude.

“Lovely people stayed with my mum. She didn’t see it and stepped on it, causing it to rock.

“They were told not to move her, but by about 5.40pm, she had been on the floor for almost an hour.

“My husband, who is a first aider, managed to get her off the floor.

“She is a coronary patient on blood thinners, so we had to have a scan on her head to check everything was OK.

“There was bruising to her right side, a concussion and a swollen face. It has really knocked her confidence.”

Mrs McIntyre, who lives in Clacton, said she has been frustrated in her attempts to get the paving slab seen to by Essex County Council’s highways department.

She says a site visit was made on September 27, but she was told repairing the loose slab was “not a priority”.

Despairing over a lack of action, the frustrated daughter said witnesses alerted her to a previous incident just weeks before.

“I heard from some of the people who helped her that another lady fell over the same stone in September 25 and broke her nose,” she said.

“There are some lovely people in Clacton, they didn’t leave her side.

“Why did my mother have to fall for this to become an issue?

“Surely it is just common sense to check it and quickly fix it. I just feel exasperation with the way these things are handled.

“There doesn’t seem to be any sense in local government anymore. It is a complete lack of common sense.”

“I didn’t want to have to spend five hours in A and E.”

She added: “I feel like the council should have some kind of outreach arm whereby residents can help them with certain jobs - otherwise these kind of simple repairs, which we know need to be done, simply don’t get done.”

An Essex Highways spokesperson said the pavement in Pier Avenue is inspected every three months.

He added: “We are sorry to hear about this incident and wish the lady involved a speedy recovery.

“Following this incident we have attended to re-inspect the paving stone and the paving slab concerned has been recorded as a defect, although given the fact that it is only slightly raised, it does not require urgent repair.”