AN 82-year-old woman was taken to hospital after she fell over an exposed pavement which was undergoing repairs.

The incident took place on Monday afternoon on SaltcoatsDockhead Street shortly before 4pm and occurred after safety cones were removed over the weekend.

It is unclear when and why the safety cones were moved but nobody sought permission to move the cones and they were replaced shortly after the incident took place.

A North Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “The temporary barrier was put in place by a contractor carrying out work on behalf of a public utility company.

“We became aware of the issue when we were alerted to an incident in Dockhead Street and our staff immediately re-instated the temporary barriers. We can also confirm that no permission was given to remove the temporary barrier.

“We have been in touch with the contractors to ask them to reinstate the affected area of pavement to its previous condition.”

A Police Scotland spokeswoman confirmed that they had attended at Dockhead Street in Saltcoats and that an 82-year-old woman had been taken to Crosshouse Hospital after a fall on the pavement there.