A woman who recently tripped over a pothole on her road, resulting in her wrist breaking in two places, has hit out at the council who had previously done nothing about the state of the street. 

Michelle Lay, who lives on Oak Tree Road in Tilehurst, said that the residential street she lives on has been in an awful condition for as long as she can remember.

Around a month ago Wednesday April 23 metres from her front door, Mrs Lay was crossing the road when her foot got caught in a pothole.

"I struggled to get my foot free and the next thing I knew I was hitting the pavement," she said.

"It was horrible! I remember thinking ouch what has happened to my left arm as it hit the pavement quite hard. It was very painful."

Mrs Lay then went to the hospital to see what had happened to her arm, and after the x-ray results came back the doctor told her she had broken two bones either side of her wrist. 

"I've broken a bone before but I've never had so much pain as I felt then," she said. 

"It's in plaster of Paris and I have to return to the hospital soon."

The council then came to Mrs Lay's road to fix the numerous amount of potholes that littered the street despite having previously ignored pleas from the residents to have it resurfaced. 

Mrs Lay said she is unsure how the council knew about her accident, assuming that this was the reason for them swiftly rectifying the problem.

She said that she told her local MP about it but is unsure if they had relayed what she said to the council. 

"They filled them all in which is obviously great," she said. "But I thought it was strange after I hurt myself for this to happen. 

"I've lived here all my life and this road hasn't been resurfaced since 1988! Everybody on this street has asked the council to resurface this road properly for years.

"It was patchier than a patchwork quilt! It was terrible. what if it had been someone older that fell? They could have really seriously hurt themselves."

Reading Borough Council has said that they are truly sorry to hear of Ms Lay’s accident and wish her a speedy recovery.

They said that while the Council is working through a long list of roads to resurface as part of their 5-year, £8m investment in road surfacing improvements, those which warrant the most attention are prioritised which means there will inevitably be occasions where potholes open up on roads we have yet to resurface.

A spokesperson said: "We inspect all reports of potholes, and repair them as soon as possible where they meet the investigatory criteria, which has already happened on Oak Tree Road recently where due to a report from a member of the public the pothole was inspected and marked for repair which took place within 28 days."