A TEN-year high in cycling accidents has been blamed on the state of Oxfordshire’s roads, with fears growing that cash to repair them could be hit by fresh budget cuts.

Figures from Oxfordshire County Council show the number of cyclists involved in crashes across the county in 2014 rose to the highest number since at least 2004, at 376.

That included four fatal crashes, 75 serious crashes and 297 ‘slight’ crashes.

In Oxford, the total number of incidents has risen for five years, from 128 in 2010 to 201 in 2014, a Freedom of Information request revealed.

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County fire chiefs – who are responsible for road safety campaigns – said the increase is thought to be down to the rising number of people getting on the saddle.

But Simon Hunt, chairman of cycling pressure group Cyclox, said the “poor” state of the city’s roads was also to blame, with potholes and other damage posing a danger to those on bicycles.

His comments come as the county council grapples with how to save further millions from an already-stretched roads budget, with another round of Government cuts totalling £50m expected.

Transport boss David Nimmo Smith has previously admitted the council is “managing a decline” in standards, but said new measures were being brought in – such as new road surfacing machines – to help save cash.

This week he told the Oxford Mail: “We do anticipate the road budget will take another hit.

“I am trying to protect the highways budget as much as possible, but the other directorates in the council are also trying to do the same thing.

“We are trying to manage a road network that is not up to the standards we would like it to be.”

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Transport boss David Nimmo Smith

The county council said it spent £19.8m on road repairs last year. Despite further expected cuts, the local authority has committed itself to an ambitious scheme to improve facilities for cyclists across Oxford over the next 15 years.

It has proposed a new set of so-called ‘cycle super routes’, ‘cycle premium routes’ and ‘connector routes’, which would link up key routes such as Woodstock Road, Abingdon Road and Botley Road, that people use to get around.

Cycle super routes – the top classification – would have uninterrupted cycle lanes “as a minimum requirement” where possible, separated from the rest of traffic in some cases.

The planned improvements would also have cyclist-only waiting areas in front of traffic lights and a ban on parking or vehicles loading at the side of the road during peak times.

But Cyclox chairman Mr Hunt said the improvements would be pointless if they were not coupled with regular road upkeep and more durable surfaces.

He added: “A well-publicised reason for there being more accidents is that there are more cyclists, but the other is the deterioration in the quality of our road surfaces.

“The state of Oxford’s roads is poor. Everyone can see the potholes and the drain covers which have been pounded down by the buses and all these things are getting worse.

“It means cyclists are having to pay more attention on avoiding them and that distracts from looking at other traffic.”

Harwell cyclist Sean Wright was injured in August, when he swerved to avoid a car in Abingdon that tried to pass him but hit a pothole and crashed into the kerb.

The 27-year-old nursery nurse said: “I was cycling in Inverness two weeks ago and the roads in Oxfordshire are awful in comparison.

“In Oxford they can be particularly appalling and there are some I avoid completely because you can’t ride down them without risking a busted wheel or puncture.

“For cyclists it can be a major factor in accidents because you are having to swerve to avoid them and a car may be behind you.”

A county council spokeswoman said “poor or defective road surfaces do not feature as a significant factor” in accidents involving cyclists.

Dave Etheridge, chief fire officer at Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue, said the rise in accidents involving cyclists was largely believed to be down to an increase in riders, but he added the authority was “proactive with managing risk in the county”.

He told the Oxford Mail: “We have a road safety campaign and work with all the schools in the county, as well as more than 600 volunteers, to do cycle safety initiatives.

“We work with sixth formers and with younger years, but all of these programmes take time to bed in.

“Through education we have to carry on with our vision of making sure this county is safer for everyone who travels in it.”