Councillors in East Oxford are putting leaflets on the windscreens of drivers who are blocking pavements with their vehicles.

They claim the problem is getting worse and want to alert drivers that pedestrians are being put at risk.

Nuala Young, Green city councillor for the St Clements ward, will tomorrow night put leaflets on the cars of worst offenders before raising the issue at the East Area Parliament in the St Clements Family Centre in Cross Street.

Copies of the leaflets, produced by the city council, will be available at the 6.30pm meeting for people to take away.

The A5-size leaflets say: "Pavements are for people. Please do not park on them, even for a moment."

Ms Young said the issue was raised by residents at a recent police liaison meeting in the area.

She added: "The problem has been getting worse and I think East Oxford now suffers more than other parts of the city where the problem also exists.

"Before I went to the police liaison meeting, I saw a group of children from SS Mary and John School and they were forced to squeeze through a very narrow gap.

"Cars are leaving less and less space on the pavement for pedestrians and this is forcing mums with buggies out into the road, which is obviously dangerous.

"For the worst offenders we will put stickers on drivers' windscreens, reminding them that pavements are for pedestrians.

"This might make some drivers angry, but it will remind them to think about the needs of pedestrians."

Ms Young acknowledged that some streets in East Oxford were so narrow that parking on the pavement had become the norm, to allow emergency vehicles access.

She added: "There is a tacit agreement that it is OK to park like that, but now cars are taking up a larger chunk of the pavement than they used to.

"Unfortunately, if the vast majority of residents are parking on the pavement it is hard to be the only driver who parks on the road and risks getting his car scraped.

"The police have told us that they will only come out to deal with a car parked on the pavement if they receive an individual complaint."

Ms Young added that East Oxford councillors were not in favour of white lines marking out parking spaces on pavements, which have appeared in some narrow streets in other parts of the city.

Earlier this year, Oxfordshire County Council gave approval for motorists to park on pavements in Ferry Road and William Street - both in Marston - where a new controlled parking zone was being introduced.

White lines were painted to allow cars to park half on the pavement and half off it, leaving a space of just 1.2m for pedestrians.