A man has been left with a gash to his knee after falling into a ditch in Witham which was littered with sheets of metal and trolleys.

The state of the bridlepath between Blunts Hall Road and Highfields Road has deteriorated again despite a clean-up by Braintree Council a few months ago.

Simon Parsloe, 28, of Helford Court, Witham, was playing football with friends when the ball went into the ditch.

He volunteered to retrieve it but fell on to a pile of metal sheets, which caused two cuts to his knee down to the bone.

He said: "God knows what else I fell on. There are trolleys and a load of other mess in there.

Braintree Council's clean team, which responds to a range of environmental tasks, said it had not been informed about the rubbish but would remove any dangerous objects by hand in the next couple of days.

A spokeswoman for Braintree Council said: "Anything particularly dangerous will be cleared up in the next couple of days.

Published Tuesday August 13, 2002

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