A grate injustice in Sotogrande

AN expat is demanding answers after being hospitalised when she fell through a grate in the road.

Pearl Burrows, 55, has called in lawyers after she was unable to work for two months when the grid in Sotogrande collapsed as she stepped on it.

Translator Burrows suffered meniscus damage to her knee and a badly bruised elbow in the fall outside the Almenara Hotel.

She had to be pulled out by a passer-by who stopped his car.

But despite insisting it is ‘a cut and dried case’ of negligence, Burrows has since received a letter from the hotel’s insurers Zurich, denying responsibility.

“The hotel bosses insist it is a public road and therefore not their responsibility,” she told the Olive Press.

“But to get to where the grid is you have to go through the hotel’s security gate – that doesn’t seem like a public road to me.

“I am so angry at the way the hotel bosses have shrugged their shoulders.”

They have also suggested that the grid may in fact belong to electrical suppliers Endesa although Burrows is waiting to hear from the firm.

She has now instructed lawyers to write to San Roque town hall in a bid to establish who is responsible.

Despite the accident happening in February, Burrows, who runs a language company, still suffers from discomfort.

“I’ve had to have a lot of physiotherapy – which of course I’ve had to pay for,” she said. “It could have been worse but why should it happen at all – there just seems to be no social responsibility here.”