A WOMAN suffered nasty cuts to her leg when she fell over rocks at the edge of a tidal paddling pool.

Campaigners say their fears have now been realised over the safety of the pool, near the Concord Cafe, on Canvey. They are trying to save another, older pool nearby which faces closure by Castle Point Council. The woman slipped by the council-run tidal pool on Sunday, and fell into the sea at high tide.

Several people rushed to her rescue and, after a minute-long struggle, they managed to pull her back over the rocks and into the pool.

The unidentified woman, from Rochester in Kent, was left with blood dripping down her leg after the accident.

The end of the incident was caught on film by campaigner Colin Letchford, who was at the beach filming the old pool to prove it is not dangerous.

He said: “I didn’t like to video it because it felt intrusive, but it proved everything we’ve been saying about the new pool. Afterwards, I explained the situation to the woman and she was happy to help because she thinks it’s dangerous as well.”

Activists from the Protect Our Pool campaign to save the old pool have long said that levels of algae in the new pool make it very slippery.

Two weeks ago, worried residents put up signs around the pool warning users about the danger of slipping on the algae. The council removed the signs.

Mr Letchford said: “The council has been warned time and time again about this. I’m gobsmacked they removed the signs and did nothing about the slime.”

Andrew Roby Smith, the council’s contracts monitoring officer, said “We are very sorry to hear about the incident at the weekend. The council department responsible will continue to carry out regular inspections and deal with any issues arising from the condition of the pool.

“Users are advised the pool is not supervised and to use special caution in this area of the beach.”

View the footage at www.canvey islandcomment.com/latest-news.html