I WRITE regarding Tim Hallchurch’s Yes view in The Issue (Mail, September 18) on County Council spending on pavements and the crass suggestion that people only fall over because they are not looking out properly.

His mother had told him to look out where he was going, as did my mother, but that did not stop her falling over last week on the pavement outside Templars Square in Cowley.

She was looking out properly but, as walking is also a problem for her, she could not react quickly enough to the uneven surface and fell.

As expected for someone in their 70s this ended with a broken arm, which is something you should not expect when doing some shopping in a ‘safe’ shopping centre.

I am sure that my mother would love to go ‘walking in a wood' as Cllr Hallchurch suggested.

But as she has to limit her walking for essential activities, such as shopping, she rightly expects to have correctly maintained footways.

I think that is something that the general public expects, rather than the ‘tough on you' attitude and lack of sympathy shown by a councillor.

I suggest that Cllr Hallchurch does something about the surface of Otmoor Lane (in his area) where one struggles to walk 10 metres on a flat surface and one which I am surprised does not bring more compensation claims.

ROY GRANT, St Christopher’s Place, Cowley, Oxford