Portsmouth traumatised pensioner, 70, slashes leg open on fly-tipped rubbish outside Buckland home

Traumatised Susan Hunt, 70, was walking around the piled-up rubbish in George Street, Buckland, when she caught herself on the unknown item. Such was the deep cut on her right knee that she needed surgery and is now in a brace.

Portsmouth City Council had been told about the rubbish four days before the retired personal assistant fell – and put a ‘council aware’ sticker on the mess. If it is not public land the council has no power to immediately remove the rubbish.

Susan said: ‘I knew it was there and I knew I had to get past it – I was thoroughly enjoying the sunshine – I thought I had enough room between it and me.

‘I don’t know if it was metal cladding or shelving because it must have just slightly touched my leg or foot and it sent me sprawling right across the pavement.

‘When I finally managed to come to and got up, I got myself up on my elbow and there was brown metal plastic cladding.

‘I didn’t even feel it but then I realised I was bleeding profusely.’

Susan was taken first to St Mary’s Treatment Centre by ambulance before being referred straight to orthopaedics at Queen Alexandra Hospital where she underwent an hour’s surgery.

Susan’s bad luck started when a van was set on fire in George Street near her home on April 24. The shell of the van was left, with one curtained side destroyed.

That left the vehicle open and people soon started leaving microwaves, dinner plates, bottles, and plastic and metal cladding inside the trailer.

This was reported to the council and late on July 2 the vehicle vanished – but the rubbish was dumped on the street. Susan reported this to the council.

But when she was walking home from the shop on July 7 with a new plant in hand for her garden, disaster struck when she picked her way past the pile of rubbish.

Before lockdown, Susan was busy doing aqua aerobics, swimming and attending a cinema club. But since March she has been confined to a daily short walk and sitting in her garden. Now she cannot even do that any more.

‘It’s really quite traumatic, I’m still coming to terms with it,’ Susan, who does not have any family, told The News.

‘I’m now so impacted as having been a very active lady, now my life is completely upside down.

‘Tuesday, July 7 was a very memorable morning for me for all the wrong reasons.

‘It’s very sad. Absolutely everything is no more as how it was.

‘I know we have the dreadful situation in lockdown. I was doing the best I could.’

Susan has an appointment with the fracture clinic in two weeks for further treatment but does not know how long it will be until she is healed. She did not break any bones.

Councillor Steve Pitt said: ‘I wasn’t aware of this particular incident. Now it’s been drawn to my attention I will naturally investigate and speak to council officers to ascertain what's gone one.’

He said the case could be ‘far more complicated' than it seems if the area of fly-tipping is not public land.

If it is privately-owned then the authority can only act if it has contacted the landowner but not had a response.

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