A TECHNICAL glitch has caused confusion over when and where Essex Highways has tended to coastal footpaths.

Sally Strutt, of Rectory Road, Holland-on-Sea, first complained about the state of the footpath at the back of The Walings beach huts in November 2015.

A regular dog walker, she noticed weeds and bramble had overgrown the path – also used for horses and cyclists – by about a metre.

It would be 14 months later when she received a response on January 17 to say the matter had been resolved – but Essex Highways explained this was down to an error in the system.

A spokesperson said: “The work to the overgrown path was done in March last year thanks to a volunteer group who worked with us to clear the path.

“Unfortunately, an email to confirm this activity was not sent until much later, due to an error with the system.

“Normally an automatic email is sent to people who have raised issues when work has been completed.

“We apologise the email was late in arriving but we hope Sally saw the work had been carried out on the path as she used it.”

But now nearly a year later, Mrs Strutt says the well-used footpath, which starts at the green near the golf course, is still in a state of disrepair.

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She said: “It badly needs doing. I would say there’s a good metre of growth over the path and quite a lot of it is brambles, which are the worst thing.

“If it’s done properly, it would need cutting back about once a year but the growing season varies from year to year so it’s difficult to say, but the brambles.

“I hadn’t noticed the path was done last year but I wouldn’t like to categorically say something hasn’t happen – I could’ve missed it.

“However, it can’t have been done very effectively because it wasn’t cut back right to the edge of the path.”

With the footpath become ever narrower, it is posing a problem for Mrs Strutt’s dog Harriet.

The five-and-a-half-year-old Vizsla is going blind and so has trouble navigating along the footpath.

She said: “Harriet needs a lot of space and gets worried by the other dogs. I find the path so narrow now walking along it is difficult.

"Further along the path towards Holland-on-Sea is very neatly cut back and is also a wider path, but this bit seems to be completely neglected.”