CALLS have been made to repair a “hazardous” Southend street after a man needed ten stitches following a nasty fall.

David Wilson, 61, suffered a severe cut above his left eye after he tripped over the exposed roots of a tree outside the HM Revenue and Customs building, in Victoria Avenue, and landed head first on the pavement as he walked home carrying a bag of shopping.

He has been left scarred by his injuries.

Mr Wilson, of Burr Hill Chase, Prittlewell, said: “I was half knocked out and had blood dripping down my face and on to my clothes. It was awful.

“I’ve been left with a scar and I’m still getting headaches now.

“I got in touch with the council and it admitted the path is a bit of a mess, but I keep going down there to have a look, and nothing has been done.

“I just don’t want it to happen to anybody else.”

Landowners in Victoria Avenue clubbed together last year to try to draw up a redevelopment plan for the street, which is lined with derelict, crumbling buildings.

Fourteen-story Portcullis House, which stood empty for four years after HM Revenue and Customs relocated to nearby Alexandra House, is being bulldozed.

Ian Gilbert, Labour group leader and Victoria ward councillor, said: “I certainly think the path needs to be looked at.I have noticed a number of defects.

“This isn’t an issue just along Victoria Avenue, but in the whole of the borough.

“It’s worrying if the pavements are becoming a hazard.

“Work is being done on the other side of the road to replace paving slabs and it would be good if that could happen at other sites.”

Despite a number of visits to the location where Mr Wilson fell, on May 24, Southend Council has no current plans to make improvements.

A spokesman said: “The area around Alexandra House in Victoria Avenue where Mr Wilson tripped contains a clear, wide and therefore safe pedestrian throughfare.

“The large trees which line this area are clearly separate from the walkways and had been inspected two weeks before the incident occurred, and again after. A report by one of the council’s tree officers confirmed any work to the roots could kill these well established trees, and that the position they occupy is sufficiently defined – and marked – as not being part of the wider pavement area.”