Jean Holden tripped up on a pavement in Uckfield, broke her foot, smashed her glasses and suffered from shock and cuts.

But when she wrote to East Sussex County Council asking for compensation, she did not get much sympathy.

Instead, the authority's solicitors said she could not expect the pavement to be as smooth as a bowling green.

In fact, Mrs Holden had her nasty fall because her heel got caught in a hole around a water valve.

Whether Mrs Holden deserved compensation or not is a matter of law but what she did not need was a rude letter such as the one she got.

She was badly shaken up and did not deserve to have insult added to injury.