IF, as reported in the sad demise of pensioner Charles Hurst (Echo 7 March), both Poole Council and Wessex Water had identified defects in the paving on Poole High Street, then it is ridiculous to say that “this accident (or the possibility thereof) could not have been foreseen”.

Poole, like some other councils, have a weird and wonderfully slow, inefficient, cost and labour deficient procedure for dealing with pavement and road defects.

It is high time that someone used some common sense and stopped relying on the worn-out excuse of shortage of money as being the answer to everything when so much is wasted in inefficient practices.

ROBERT TUCK Pardy’s Hill, Corfe Mullen