AN ELDERLY grandmother suffered serious facial injuries after tripping on a broken gutter cover and uneven paving slab in a York street.

George Street resident Hilda Boag, 73, lost her footing only yards from her home after catching her foot on a broken metal cover connecting a household and street gutter.

She then stumbled into the slightly raised paving stone before tripping and falling face down.

She suffered two black eyes, badly bruised knees, a grazed chin and a burst lip and has called on City of York Council to make pavement repairs a priority.

But a council spokesman said Saturday's incident has been investigated, and a check has shown the footway to be in a "satisfactory" condition.

He also said that maintaining the guttering in a pavement is the duty of the owner of the property from which the gutter runs.

Hilda, who has 13 grandchildren, said: "The council should be fixing roads and pavements before doing anything else.

"There are a lot of people about my age living round here and unless something is done people will keep getting hurt."

The council spokesman said a team of workers regularly checked for problems with paving, but the council relied on members of the public to let it know of problems.

"A rolling programme of footpath repairs has been ongoing across York over the last few years," he said.

Updated: 10:55 Wednesday, January 09, 2002