A MUM is furious after being told damaged pavement is a “low priority fix” despite her little girl tripping and cutting her head open.

Zoe Stewart and her daughter Felicity, two, were walking to nursery when the little girl caught her foot on the damaged pavement in Holgate, Pitsea, and fell forward onto the exposed metal edging of a drain cover, splitting her forehead open.

Miss Stewart, 31, of Daltons Fenn, said: “Her head had hit the metal corner of the drain and really cut her head.

“It was awful; there was blood everywhere and a huge swelling came up.

“I scooped her up and rushed to a friend’s house where they had a look and said they thought it would be OK and she wouldn’t need to go to hospital.

“But we kept an eye on her to make sure she was OK.”

After the accident on Thursday, January 26 , Miss Stewart, who also has a son, Connor, eight, complained to Essex County Council, which is responsible for maintaining the pavements.

However, she has been left “absolutely furious” after receiving a letter from the council which stated that an inspector had visited the site but that “the defect was not considered to be dangerous at this time and was scheduled for a low priority repair.”

She said: “I’m really angry as I have lived round the corner from this for about five years and it’s always been like it.

“We can’t be the only people to have had an accident there.

“I’m disgusted they have not deemed it dangerous. If someone else falls over perhaps someone elderly or someone else’s child it could be a lot worse.”

She added: “She’s such a pretty girl but shortly after the accident she had photos taken at nursery which we are now forever going to have on our wall and she has the cut on her face.

“We’re always going to have that reminder. We walk that way a lot and she still swerves around it now, it frightened her.”

A spokesperson for Essex Highways said: “This road is inspected regularly and significant faults are logged for repair.

“Less significant faults are repaired as part of a planned maintenance scheme unless they deteriorate further.”

The council was unable to confirm when the repairs would take place.