A woman on a 10-year mission to rid Witney of potholes and uneven slabs has gone around the town with a tape measure to check whether they meet the council threshold for repair.

Minster Lovell resident Dot Holloway, 74, has been raising concerns about ‘dangerous’ paving for a decade after having difficulty using a mobility walker.

Now due to go into hospital for foot surgery and facing weeks in a wheelchair, she said she is filled with ‘dread’ at the idea of trying to manoeuvre it through the streets of ‘Tripney’.

She said: “People thought I was mad. I went round Witney with a tape measure – I think it has to be less than the height of a 20p piece to be level. To me they were all above that criteria.

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“If you go down Welch Way, there is not one slab that is even. I use a mobility vehicle and I saw a woman in a chair which hit a paving slab and she nearly went out.

“There are several raised slabs on the disabled parking bay outside Waitrose."

Mrs Holloway started campaigning to have the broken and uneven pavements fixed after she tripped over a raised slab in 2015.

She said: “After I had the stroke I fell outside Waterstones and sustained a double break to my right arm. I was struggling to control my walker.

“Then about three years ago my husband David tripped in the Market Square outside Smarts fish and chip shop. He injured his nose and face and his brand-new glasses had to be straightened.

“A gentleman I know fell over in the same pothole and tore all the muscles in his hand. He was a taxi driver and couldn’t work. He was contemplating suing the council.”

In January 2019, Oxfordshire County Council repaired some of the pavements along the High Street, from Welch Way to Boots, as part of an infrastructure project costing £100,000.

Mrs Holloway was joined by council officers Andrew Vidovic and Darren Burns for a tour of the pavements she thought were most dangerous, including areas surrounding the Market Square.

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The council officers agreed the paving slabs around the square were dangerously uneven, despite being below the council’s threshold for repair.

Mrs Holloway said: “They have tarmacked a bad one outside the Co-op on Witney High Street and one near Welch Way blue badge bay that was five inches deep and six inches wide but not the one next to it. It’s not quite as deep but going that way.

"I have walked round Witney with Tim Bearder [Cabinet Member for Highway Management] and he agreed that they are absolutely, utterly dangerous."

Mrs Holloway has been writing to OCC for years and has enlisted the help of Witney MP Robert Courts and Andrew Coles, county councillor for Witney South and Central.

Mr Coles said it was a serious issue as “our pavements are worse now than anyone can remember”.

He said: “Twelve years of austerity have really taken their toll. Far too many people have sustained injuries. Recently I visited a constituent who had a nasty fall while collecting her grandson from school. The resulting injuries led to extensive surgery to repair a shattered shoulder and arm."

He added: "I will continue to do all I can to raise the issue and lobby the council for the necessary improvements. I am really grateful to Dot for all her hard work and dogged determination."