Council fails to ensure safe walking

AN ILL grandmother who was taken to hospital after slipping and falling on an ungritted road is to seek compensation from Waltham Forest Council.

Marianne Jones, 55, of Mount Pleasant Road, Walthamstow, who is suffering from severe bronchitis, was walking to the doctor's surgery in Penrhyn Avenue when she slipped on black ice. She was taken to Whipps Cross University Hospital where she was treated for concussion and a cut to the head.

The Council has a legal duty to ensure its pavements and roads are in a safe condition – a duty it sometimes spectacularly neglects. In a case like this one what you need is photographs of the place where you fell, and ideally a witness to the dangerous state of the pavement or road. Send the Council (with a copy to a ward councillor) a detailed account of the incident and request an acknowledgement within one week.

It helps to have good legal advice – try the Citizens Advice Bureau rather than a ‘no win, no fee’ outfit.