A PENSIONER who has fought to make the pavements of Witney safer has claimed victory, after the county council promised to fix them.

Dorothy Holloway, 71, started campaigning to have the broken and uneven pavements of Witney’s Market Square repaired after she tripped over a raised slab in 2015 and broke her right arm.

In January this year, 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.

Now OCC staff have met with Mrs Holloway ahead of planned repairs to the pavements of the Market Square, which she had previously described as being “deadly, dastardly and dire.”

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Mrs Holloway said she felt elated by the plans to repave the Market Square.

She said: “Does it feel like a victory? Does it ever!”

Oxford Mail:

Dorothy Holloway, 71, broke her arm after tripping on uneven paving in Witney in 2015. Picture: Jon Lewis.

Minster Lovell resident Mrs Holloway was joined by council officers Andrew Vidovic and Darren Burns on Thursday, September 12, for a tour of the pavements she thought were most dangerous.

She showed them areas surrounding the Market Square where she fallen and where residents had suffered similar fates.

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

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Mrs Holloway, who has taken to calling the town “Tripney”, said the plan to repair the pavements was an important step for better accessibility.

She said: “I am pleased for everybody else who uses a mobility walker like me or that uses a wheelchair.

“I have a friend in a wheelchair who currently finds it impossible to go around Witney Market Square.”

Oxford Mail:

One of the paving slabs in Witney Market Square standing as high as a 20p coin in 2017. Picture: Jon Lewis.

But she added able-bodied people had fallen and been hurt.

This included her own husband, David, who tripped in September last year near Smarts Fish and Chip Shop, tearing the muscles in his arm and cutting his face when he fell against the floor.

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Mrs Holloway has been writing to OCC for four and a half years about the paving problems and has even enlisted the help of Witney MP Robert Courts and Laura Price, county councillor for Witney South and Central.

A letter from the county council to Mrs Holloway confirmed that several areas she had pointed out as being dangerous would be repaired within 28 days.

Oxford Mail:

Works on the 'dangerous' sloped pavement outside HSBC in Witney earlier this year. Picture: Ed Nix

Oxfordshire County Council spokesman Martin Crabtree said: “We are working on, or have plans for, all of the work we agreed on our visit with Mrs Holloway.

“Following our site visit we currently have a gang on site undertaking repairs to various defects that need repair within 28 days. We hope to have these complete these by the end of the week.

“That will leave three larger distinct areas that require additional time to be fully planned to be lifted and re-laid. These comprise two areas of paving under trees on the Market Square north of the town council and one area on the south side of Welch Way, close to the High Street.”

Mrs Holloway plans to remain vigilant until the work has been completed.

She said: “I am sure they will do it, but if they don’t, I will be back on to them.”