Highways bosses insist a paving slab which tripped up a great-grandmother with osteoporosis is not dangerous enough to fix.

Diane Marshall, 71, narrowly avoided breaking a bone when she fell "on her face" outside the Halifax in Great Square, Braintree, after a small paving slab sunk three inches when she stepped on it.

The great-grandmother of three, of Capel Road, Rayne, was left bruised and shaken after the accident, which smashed her watch in the process.

But Essex Highways refused to pay for Mrs Marshall’s smashed watch or an £8 taxi trip home even though inspectors had identified a defect with the slab six weeks before.

The slab was first reported to the council on July 6 and logged as a low priority for repair, which still has not been carried out.

See this week's Braintree Times for more.