Council staff allegedly told woman who slipped on footpath to wear socks over her shoes

A woman who slipped on a mossy footpath was told to wear socks over her shoes, a councillor in Timaru&lt, New Zealand, says. Timaru District councillor Steve Wills says the local woman recently skidded on a mossy, frosty footpath.

When she complained, council staff told her "to put her socks on outside her shoes", Wills told a recent district services committee. He believed more attention could be paid to maintenance, including in the footpaths policy councillors were debating.



Land Transport manager Andrew Dixon said workers cleaned Timaru's downtown footpaths twice yearly, but not footpaths elsewhere. The policy "reflects the current practice and the current budget", Dixon said. District services group manager Ashley Harper said Wills' story "surprised" him.

Sweeping the footpath with a wire broom could be arranged for such "one-off" circumstances, Harper said. The council's use of hotmix for footpath resurfacing made them smooth for trundlers and mobility scooters, but moss could be a problem. "There is no real answer to the issue," Harper said.