A 70-year-old woman has spoken of her six-day ordeal in hospital after slipping on cracked paving stones outside a Laindon shopping centre.

Rita White, 70, of Forest Glade, Langdon Hills, suffered a broken arm and severe bruising after tripping on dodgy paving stones outside the Laindon centre two weeks ago.

But Mrs White is not the only victim – an 86-year-old woman also fell on the same cracked stones and needed seven stitches to her face.

Councillors Phil and Pat Rackley are demanding Colonnade, the developer which owns the shopping centre, to sort the stones out before someone else is hurt.

Mrs White said: “I was walking to the chemist to pick up my prescription when I fell.

“I knew I’d broken my arm and it was very painful.

“Two nurses from the health centre came out and then they took me to hospital.

“I was in there for six days waiting for an operation.

“I’m very angry. I’ve been through quite a bit this last few weeks.

“Something needs to be done before someone else gets hurt. Someone is going to fall.”

St Martin’s ward councillor, Phil Rackley, said: “The paving is cracked and very dangerous. Something needs to be done.”

Pat Rackley, also St Martin’s ward councillor, said she had been in touch with Essex County Council about the paving.

However, she was told County Hall was not responsible for maintaining the area, but would be writing to Colonnade about the situation.

She added: “People have a right to sue.

“It’s not a good surface and so elderly people fall. It’s really dangerous.”

A receptionist from the nearby health centre, who did not want to be named, said: “The paving stones are a disgrace.

“The 86-year-old was on her way home from the health centre when she tripped.

“Nurses had to go out to her, she lost quite a lot of blood and had to have seven stitches on her nose, she was left very badly shaken.

“Then a 70-year-old woman fell and we had to call an ambulance. She broke her arm and was in hospital for days.”

Alastair Watson, spokesman for Colonnade, said: “We have listened to people’s concerns about the condition of the Laindon centre and we have appointed new managing agents to address these concerns.

“They have started a programme of works, repairing areas of broken paving, making improvements to the centre’s lighting, undertaking repairs to the car park surfacing, weeding, trimming trees and hedges.”

The incidents are the latest in a long list of complaints about the shopping centre, which is undergoing a revamp.

In September, the Echo reported shopkeepers were fed-up with the centre, which they described as a “shanty town”, strewn with litter, graffiti, and weeds.