Pavements in Malmesbury are under scrutiny following complaints from residents, including one widow who has undergone seven months of treatment after she tripped and fell in the High Street.

Grandmother Dee Jordan fell on paving slabs as she walked passed Sports and Leisure in the High Street on her way back from the post office in March, causing months of agonising shoulder problems.

“I didn’t fall, I flew,” said Mrs Jordan, who lives in the town centre.

“It was absolutely horrendous.

“I literally caught my toe and I flew through the air and my shoulder was very badly dislocated.”

After a 10-hour wait at hospital, Mrs Jordan was eventually seen and ended up spending two-and-a-half weeks in a neck brace.

However seven months on, the 73-year-old former nurse now faces the prospect of an operation, after consultants discovered she had also torn ligaments in her shoulder, causing her partial immobility.

Mrs Jordan paid £400 to have a private scan, which detected the further damage, after the injury to her writing hand would not clear. She has also had to have an electric bath lift fitted to ease her in and out the water.

This week consultants advised Mrs Jordan she will need a deep steroid injection and an MRI scan.

After contacting Wiltshire Council to complain and try to reclaim her £400, she was advised that the indentation in the pavement that she feels caused her injuries was not dangerous enough for the authority to accept liability.

“It’s really been a nightmare,” she said.

“I had my gall bladder out three years ago and that was like singing in the park compared to this.

“It really was a miserable thing to go through and I would just hate anybody else to have to go through it.

“I just thank God I didn’t break my hip as well because I could never have managed crutches.”

Town councillor Amanda Kettlety, who is chairman of the Pavements Working Party, has gone around the town identifying and taking pictures of dangerous spots. She can be contacted on (01666) 829085.

A Wiltshire Council spokesman said: “We are sorry to hear of Mrs Jordan’s fall and her subsequent medical issues.

“Prior to the accident no defects were found on this pavement.

“Following the incident a further inspection was carried out and the area was found to be at an acceptable standard.”