Cleaner vows to sue council after falling and breaking arm on icy road in Larkhall

Dec 23 2010 by Gary Fanning, Hamilton Advertiser

A CLEANER has vowed to sue the council after falling and breaking her arm while crossing an icy road in Larkhall.

Grandmother Marion Burton told how she was left in agony after slipping and falling in Thistle Crescent, Hareleeshill, last Monday night.

The 46-year-old was making her way home from her work at HSBC call centre in Hamilton International Technology Park when the accident happened.

She claims that she fell because the roads and pavements weren’t gritted and were covered in ice.

But South Lanarkshire Council bosses insisted the road was gritted on Thursday, December 9 – four days before the fall.

Marion, who lives in Firbank Avenue, went in a taxi to A&E at Wishaw General Hospital and was treated for a broken bone in her right arm.

She said: “I was crossing the road and fell on ice.

“I think this road should now be gritted in the light of what happened to me.

“The road was like a sheet of ice.

“I phoned the council and asked them for a claim form, and they told me that Thistle Crescent wasn’t one of the main routes for gritting.

“I am now having to go on the sick and I am going to lose pay because of this.”

A council spokesman said: “We are sympathetic to anyone who is injured because of the weather conditions.

“Thistle Crescent and the surrounding areas were treated on December 9, all through the day until 10pm.

“This area is not on the council’s precautionary gritting network.

“The presumption has to be that roads outwith the precautionary gritting network will not be treated, other than in situations of serious hardship.

“Our priority has to be our main routes.

“All other roads are treated during extended periods of adverse conditions, providing all precautionary routes are clear and treated, and if our own resources permit.”