Spending on pavement repairs in Oxfordshire has rocketed by 70 per cent to £2.3m, new figures show.

Oxfordshire County Council’s bill for repairing kerbs, pavements and public walkways rose to £2.3m last year, up from £1.5m in 2007.

Spokesman Owen Moreton said: “A number of factors are likely to have contributed including the harsh winters of the last two years and the inevitable rise in costs associated with labour and materials over time.”

It comes as the budget for highways and transport is squeezed as part of a council-wide drive to save £119m from 2011 to 2015.

The department – spending about £55m this year – has to cut £13m over four years.

The figures were uncovered by the Guide Dogs charity, which said drivers who park with two wheels on pavements are to blame for about one in five repairs.

Head of campaigns David Cowdrey said: “Pavements are built to cope with the weight of people – including people in wheelchairs, mums with pushchairs, blind or partially sighted people with long canes or guide dogs and older people with shopping trolleys.

“They’re not built to withstand cars, vans or lorries, and paving slabs are particularly vulnerable to cracking under the pressure.”

He called for motorists to be more considerate and for councils to ban parking on pavements where needed.

Mr Moreton said: “Pavement parking undoubtedly contributes to wear and tear of pavements, though it would be impossible to measure its effects against other factors.”

It comes after the council this year said the county’s roads got worse in 2010 for the first time in five years.

It got £9m from the Government for road repairs over the summer but said £70m was needed for resurfacing damaged roads.

Former construction firm owner Adrian Taylor, of Thames Court, Eynsham, who has written 35 letters to the council over pavements in Witney, said he was not surprised by the rise in repair costs.

He said: “The High Street is up and down all over the place, there are a lot of trip points. I have seen two people who tripped and fell.”

The 66-year-old, who walks with a stick after suffering a stroke 10 years ago, said he almost fell after tripping on an upturned paving slab.

He said: “I was lucky I had my carer with me to stop me falling. I’m disabled and I have to watch every step I take along there.”