Hampshire County Council’s Highways Department to visit Lymington High Street after tourist breaks arm in pothole fall

A TOURIST in her 70s suffered an “excruciating” broken arm after falling in a pothole on Lymington High Street.

Val Lovell, who lives near Dover, was visiting the Forest for a long weekend with family when she tripped in the road during the market.

She was rushed to Lymington hospital for emergency treatment by the owner of Sway Cycles, Shelley Cockle, who was running a stall nearby.

“I’m recovering slowly,” Val told the A&T, “but it’s going to be at least six to eight weeks until my arm is healed.

“I often come to the Forest with my husband to visit family. We had gone to Lymington market on Saturday morning, and I went to cross the road and apparently there was a massive pothole right in the middle of the road.

“Obviously I didn’t see it but I caught my foot on it, lost my balance and fell. I broke my humerus bone at the top and I’ve injured the ball of my foot. It was excruciating.”

She continued: “A really helpful lady running one of the stalls gave me a chair to sit on and she took us to hospital – she was a godsend.

“She said she had removed litter from the pothole earlier that day, so perhaps I would have seen it if the litter had still been in there.”

Val said “very efficient” staff at the hospital X-rayed and strapped her arm, but she slammed local authorities over the state of the road.

“It’s a sign of the times, unfortunately,” Val said. “If the town is trying to attract tourists through the market and there’s big potholes in the road, then they should be marked up or indicated in some way.

“I did email the county council about my fall but I didn’t even get a reply. I struggled to even find the right email address, I had the devil’s own job to get that.

“I’m not looking for a cash payout or compensation – I just think they should be made aware of this.

“I’m 76 and I don’t suffer from any mobility issues, but I still fell. I do hope something can be done to resolve this situation and to prevent more accidents like this from happening in the future.”

Val sent an email reporting her fall to county council leader Rob Humby, as well as Lymington and Pennington Town Council.

Responding to news of Mrs Lovell’s fall, Lymington mayor Jack Davies said: “People shouldn’t be putting themselves at risk simply by walking down the street because of the disgusting state of our roads.

“The question must be asked whether this pothole was inspected by Hampshire County Council and what action was requested.

“I have had potholes inspected and labelled as “no action needed” when they clearly need to be fixed.

“However, Hampshire County Council can’t take all of the blame for this. Council funding has been decimated by Westminster, and this has meant severe cuts to road maintenance.”

A Hampshire County Council spokesperson said: “We are very sorry to hear about this incident and, having checked our records cannot find a report of it. We will arrange an inspection of the location, however, and carry out any repair that may be necessary.”

Ms Cockle, who runs her cycle stall at Lymington market every week, said: “There’s never a dull moment at the market. This woman had fallen and she was obviously in a lot of pain.

“I got her a chair from our stand, and then I heard her daughter talking about getting a taxi to hospital.

“For the sake of a 10-minute drive, I took them in the van. I’ve had messages from Val and her daughter since then saying thank you. I was just glad to be able to help.”

She added: “It’s been a terrible winter for creating potholes.

“Where I live in Sway, we have serious problems with potholes. Council workers tried to repair them last year but it never seems to be a very good job.

“It’s a bit of an ongoing farce, really, and quite a worry. I’ve heard of a number of people having nasty accidents on our roads and it always seems to be worse at this time of year, towards the end of winter.

“I’ve also seen workers out patching roads in the pouring rain – I’ve always thought to myself that this surely can’t be the best time to do that.”