Cyclists and pedestrians have reacted with anger at news that a third of the county's pavements and roads are now crumbling and dangerous.

Angela Humphrey, who fell from her wheelchair when it hit a crack, with her husband Peter The findings, published in the National Road Maintenance Condition Survey, found that 38 per cent of pavements are sub standard, while more than a third of road surfaces have damage which could put the lives of motorists and cyclists at risk.

Across the county, 5.6 per cent of A roads and 39.5 per cent of other roads need repair.

Oxfordshire County Council admitted poor road and pavement quality resulted in 599 court claims against it last year, with 314 new claims since July.

Corinne Grimley-Evans, chairman of Oxford Pedestrians' Association, said: "As a pedestrian and cyclist, I know that a great deal of our roads and pavements are neglected and some, particularly for elderly and disabled people, can be life threatening.

"We continue to see even minor repairs carried out insufficiently, so they they just need doing again."

Ed Lehmann, the Vale and South Oxfordshire representative for the National Cyclists Organisation, was injured in a country lane near Garford.

"I hit a three foot long pothole. That road was eventually mended, but it took some weeks."

People suffering injuries or damage to vehicles because of potholes or other road defects are encouraged to report them at www.Cyclox.org.uk, the website of The Cycling Campaign for Oxford (Cyclox). The results are passed to Oxfordshire County Council.

County highways spokesman Kevin Haines said the Department of Transport figures should be taken in context.

He said: "National government chooses a sample of roads and these are the busiest footways -- ours are not so bad in the national concept.

"Our rural roads are not the best and this is the result of years of underfunding of highways budgets.

"But we do carry out our own independent surveys. If something is dangerous, we repair it in a couple of hours. There is a maintenance backlog, but there is also a backlog nationally."