A DILAPIDATED walkway above shops on the Four Rivers Estate in Shoebury is a deathtrap, worried families have claimed.

People living in flats and maisonettes in West Road and Avon Way say the first-floor walkway linking the L-shaped block above the shops is rotting and has gaping holes.

Keith Holland, 59, of West Road, got his foot trapped in one of the holes, tripped, and ended up in hospital with facial injuries.

He said: “I smashed my face on the walkway. It was pretty painful. I had to call to my partner, Laura, to help me.

“She got me to hospital. I think it’s terrible it’s left in this condition. You can see through the holes into the shops below.

“There are no lights, so in the winter, it is pitch black and the shops are always getting burgled.

“Someone is going to get even more badly hurt before long if something isn’t done.”

Debbie Barton, 52, who also lives in West Road, said residents had frequently complained to Marcus King, the London-based company which owns the shops.

She said: “The walkway is collapsing. It is nothing much more than chipboard with Tarmac over it.

“There are never any lights unless residents remember to leave their outside lights on.

“It was so bad the council came and put a metal plate over part of it a few months ago. Yobs continually use the stairs as a urinal, too. It’s absolutely awful.

“Children run up and down the walkway all the time and we are afraid someone will be very badly hurt one day, yet the owners won’t do anything.

“We’ve called them over and over again.”

The Marcus King company declined to comment on the issue.