A new appeal to anyone who has stumbled on a step by bus stops in the city centre has been made by a couple who are fighting for compensation for injuries relating to a fall.

Sherrie Foster was shopping with a friend in the city centre last January. She went to look at the bus timetable outside Nationwide in St Peter’s Street and without realising there was a step there, fell badly and was left with a dislocated hip and severely fractured femur.

As a result of the accident, she had to have a replacement hip and now, almost a year after the accident, she has still not made a full recovery.

In the meantime she and husband Bill have had to pay for a lot of her treatment out of their own pocket and put in a claim for compensation to Herts county council in July.

But liability for the accident was rejected on behalf of the county council in October because they did not consider the step to be a danger to the public and “entirely visible to anyone paying a reasonable amount of due care and attention.”

But the couple do not accept that is the case and are concerned that nothing seems to have been done to make any changes to the layout of the pavement around the bus stop or repaint the yellow line which was put down to draw attention to it.

Sherrie is convinced that other people have tripped or fallen on the step. She said: “While I was lying on the floor after the accident, one person nearly tripped one way and another tripped the other way.

“This shouldn’t happen where there is public transport. I am still in some discomfort and can’t walk like I used to nearly a year later.”

Sherrie, who lives in Barnet, said the step was particularly dangerous for anyone who did not know the area well.

The couple are appealing to any Herts Advertiser readers who might have tripped or fallen on the step, whether or not they have made a claim against the county council, to contact them at sabusstop@hotmail.co.uk