Council urged to repair street near Chesterfield – with elderly woman taken to hospital after falling into pothole

On Monday, February 26, Jean Hadley fell over a pothole as she was making her way to Royal Primary Care on Attlee Road in Inkersall for a blood test.

The 78-year-old suffered injuries to her face and eye - and was taken to hospital after being checked over by staff at Royal Primary Care.

Jean’s daughter, Joanne Day, said: “My mum phoned my husband to say that she needed to be taken to hospital - the doctors had obviously advised that she needed to go.

“I picked her up and took her to A&E - they were brilliant. They checked her face and bones and everything to make sure she didn’t have a fracture.

“They were going to glue the top of her eye, but said there was no real skin left - she had taken the skin off and there was nothing to glue back, so they said there was nothing they could really do.”

Joanne said that after her mum came home, her eye then started swelling up - leaving her unable to see.

“They didn’t think she had a concussion, but they wanted us to monitor her for the next 48 hours.

“Her eye then started swelling up and she couldn’t open her eye - there was a blood blister in the corner and her eye was just black.

“She’s now got her eye open, but the problem was, this was her good eye - she has cataracts in her other eye so she was virtually blind. Once that one closed up she was really struggling.”

Jean’s condition has improved in recent days, but Joanne said the accident had impacted her mum’s confidence.

“She’s looking a lot better now, but there’s about four or five potholes, which are right outside the doctor’s surgery. We went up to have a look and it’s not just those, there’s quite a few more up and down the road.

“She’s very independent, but this has definitely knocked her confidence. I know her confidence is not how it was - especially when something like that happens which is no fault of your own.”

Joanne also thanked the two people who came out to help her mum, along with the staff at Peak Pharmacy and Dr Dhamija from Royal Primary Care.

“The people who came out to help her stopped the traffic - it it hadn’t been for those two bystanders, I just dread to think what had happened, I really do.

“Royal Primary Care were brilliant too. There was no doctor in the surgery, but they rang the doctor and she came back in to see my mum.”

Councillor Dean Rhodes, who represents Inkersall Green on Staveley Town Council, called on Derbyshire County Council to take action and repair the potholes on Attlee Road.

He said: “Not only are the potholes damaging vehicles, we’re now having elderly people falling over - it could have potentially been a life-changing accident if someone had come round the corner in a double decker bus. That’s my worry more than anything.”

“We appreciate that a lot of roads are in a dire situation, but I think some of the potholes now are two months old from being reported, and still aren’t being done.

“These pothole crews are going to be coming back and back again - the roads need stripping back and doing properly. It’s not cost-effective in my opinion.”

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A Derbyshire County Council spokesperson said: “We are sorry to hear about the incident involving the lady in Inkersall and hope she is recovering.

“We know that potholes are currently an issue causing concern to many residents, and we have recently issued two open letters to residents to acknowledge the challenge, as well as letting people know what our plans are to fix them.

“The weather conditions of the last few months really have thrown exceptional things at us, which has had an impact on our roads, in particular through recent heavy rainfall, freezes and snow. But we’re working hard to fix as many potholes as possible and to carry out resurfacing in as many hotspots as we can too.

“We’ve got teams out seven days a week, who have together been filling over 2,000 potholes a week. This is alongside extra teams carrying out sectional resurfacing. So, we’re fixing potholes as quickly as we can.

“We’d ask residents to continue reporting potholes on our website, as these reports go direct to our teams alongside our regular inspections, and we will repair any actionable defects as soon as possible. You can do this on our website here.”