Sir – I agree with your correspondent, Susan Thomas, that good pavements should not be replaced simply to encourage shoppers.

But I suggest that they should be changed to make them safer for pedestrians.

Many pavements in Oxford are a disgrace, the council having allowed them to deteriorate to the point of being positively dangerous.

I live just off Abingdon Road and walk daily up St Aldate’s into the city. I frequently stumble over the cracked, broken, wobbly and misaligned paving slabs in St Aldate’s and in the last 13 months have had three falls, each time landing face down on the pavement.

Fortunately, apart from a bruise or two, only my dignity has suffered but I feel that my safety is being put at risk by the council’s reluctance to spend money on keeping the pavements in good repair.

I have a great regard for Oxford’s cultural heritage and indeed that is one factor which drew me to Oxford for my retirement years but guarding it entails careful upkeep, not neglect, putting the safety of pedestrians at risk.

The council should either maintain the York stone and cobblestones to an acceptable level of safety or replace them with a more pedestrian-friendly surface.

Speaking as one who has inspected these slabs and cobbles at very close quarters on three painful occasions I feel that, in their present condition, they would not really be missed. The dangerous slabs are not the broken or missing ones.

They are easily spotted and avoided. It is those that have slightly raised edges which catch the toe and cause the stumble — and there are many of them. If any of your readers think that I am exaggerating I suggest they take a walk from Folly Bridge up St Aldate’s on the east-side pavement. But tread carefully!

David Tuohy, Oxford