West End pavement repairs ‘not enough’ says chef who tripped

INJURY: City man broke collarbone after falling while going to work

A Dundee chef who fell on a cracked pavement and broke his collarbone has branded the council’s repair efforts a “mess”.

Stephen Muir, 52, tripped on the pavement on Step Row in the West End on his way to work at the Queen’s Hotel last month.

Since then, the patch of pavement where he had his accident has been repaired by Dundee City Council – but Mr Muir said more work was needed to fix the rest of the street.

The chef, who lives on Step Row, will be unable to work for the next few months as the injury has left him in severe pain, he said.

“The repair fits the bill but it does look like it’s just an old piece of tar that they have thrown in to fit the gap,” he said.

“It’s definitely better but it’s not enough.

“It’s definitely better but it’s not enough.

STEPHEN MUIR

“The whole pavement from top to bottom is wrecked and just because they’ve fixed where I fell doesn’t make it better when you have still got the whole of Step Row that’s a mess.”

West End councillor Fraser Macpherson, who has been liaising with Mr Muir, said he will continue to press for more funding to allow the street to be fixed.

He said: “The road maintenance fixed the pavement at the exact location where he had his fall. But in my years as councillor, Step Row has never been fully resurfaced and a lot of the pavement is cracked.

“The wider point I would make is the road maintenance partnership do a good job with what they have available to them but they do not have enough funding.

“At the last meeting I tried to have it increased by £1 million but the administration agreed to half of that. I will be trying at future budget meetings to increase funding.”

A spokesman for Dundee City Council said: “The council is responsible for managing and maintaining public roads and footways and we carry out regular safety inspections.

“Broken paving and other road and footway defects can be reported to the council.”