A SOLUTION to Witney’s ‘lethal’ pavements could improve safety but ruin the historic market town’s visual appeal, councillors have warned.

Town councillors recently discussed Oxfordshire County Council’s plans to provide a permanent fix to the pavements in the town’s centre – but now there are fears the county will simply replace the slabs with tarmac.

Witney’s paving has been causing problems for years, with elderly residents falling and injuring themselves as a result of broken or loose slabs.

Earlier this month, the Witney Gazette revealed that the county council was planning to deliver a long-term plan to avoid future problems.

However, suggestion that the county could simply replace the slabs with tarmac has been criticised for its potential to damage the town’s visual appeal.

Town leader Dean Temple said: “The plans we saw at council included a massive strip that doesn’t have pavement slabs so that’s slightly worrying.

“While replacing the slabs is a good idea, what they’ve proposed to replace them with doesn’t seem appealing at at.

“Witney is a beautiful town with many listed building so basic tarmac really wouldn’t look right.

“Personally I think they do need have a look at the plan again.”

Mr Temple said that the county council was testing the waters with its proposal.

He said the plans had been passed onto the traffic advisory committee, which will meet to discuss the issue on June 15.

Councillor Peter Dorward raised similar concerns about the visual impact of the plans.

He said: “In principle I support it. The flagstones have been an issue for many years.

“I’ve lived here since the early 1980s and they were an issue then.

“The problem with just laying down tarmac is that tarmac is not easy to look at.

“Ultimately we need to make sure that that it looks right and is safe.”

New mayor Brenda Churchill also noted that, as somebody who uses a disability scooter, tarmac was not necessarily easier to traverse on wheels.

She said: “I would hate to think we’ll start having problems with potholes in pavements as well as on the roads.”

Alan Beames suggested using the same kind of material used to create the flecked pavements in Corn Street.

It was last year that the county council first said that paving slabs could be removed completely in a bid to make the centre of Witney safer for pedestrians.

It said that repairs had to be made in the area consistently and claimed vehicles owned by market traders were responsible for much of the damage.

Dorothy Holloway, of Minster Lovell, who has suffered several falls in the town herself, appeared in the Gazette earlier this month after raising the issue with MP Robert Courts.